THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


PIONEERS  OF 
SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA 


Sfeetcbes  of  tbeir  %i\>es  anfc  Scientific  TKHorfe 


REPRINTED   WITH   ADDITIONS 
FROM   THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


EDITED   AND    REVISED    BY 

WILLIAM  JAY   YOUMANS,    M.  D. 


WITH    PORTRAITS 


NEW    YORK 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 
1896   • 


COPYRIGHT,  1896, 
BY  D.   APPLETON  AND  COMPANY. 


,!' 

Y 


PREFACE. 


THE  development  of  science  during  the  last  hundred  years, 
with  its  multiplied  and  ever-increasing  contributions  to  the 
welfare  of  man,  is  justly  looked  upon  as  the  beginning  of  one 
of  the  most  marvellous  periods  of  progress  in  the  history  of 
the  race.  Though  we  are  still  in  the  early  stages  of  this  ad-j 
vance,  its  effects  are  already  abundantly  apparent.  It  has 
revolutionized  the  industries  of  the  civilized  world,  has  given 
us  new  and  more  intimate  commercial  relations,  has  swept  away 
traditional  educational  standards,  and  by  its  stimulating  influ- 
ence is  redirecting  and  extending  the  movement  of  human 
thought. 

In  this  country  the  men  who  took  a  prominent  part  in  the 
initiation  of  these  wonderful  changes  were  comparatively  few, 
while  the  disadvantages  they  had  to  contend  with  were  many 
and  serious.  Scattered  over  a  large  extent  of  undeveloped 
territory,  unable  to  secure  the  benefits  of  co-operation,  poor  in 
pocket,  and  generally  lacking  the  sympathy  when  they  did  not 
meet  the  active  opposition  of  their  fellow-men,  the  work  they 
did  as  teachers  and  original  investigators  forms  one  of  the 
most  creditable  chapters  of  our  early  history,  and  unques- 
tionably paved  the  way  for  those  later  scientific  achievements 
of  which  as  a  nation  we  may  well  be  proud.  Surely  the  ca- 
reers of  these  men  are  quite  as  worthy  the  contemplation  of 
both  young  and  old  as  are  the  doings  of  heroes  of  carnage 
and  political  strife. 

The  purpose  of  the  present  volume  is  to  point  out,  though 
without  any  pretensions  to  completeness,  the  character  and 
scope  of  the  work  of  these  interesting  scientific  worthies,  and 
to  give  the  reader,  briefly  in  each  instance,  such  accounts  of 
the  men  as  will  enable  him  to  appreciate  something  of  their 
personal  characteristics,  and  to  know  and  admire  their  ea- 
rn 


IV 


PREFACE. 


thusiastic  love  of  Nature,  which  carried  them  over  every  ob- 
stacle in  the  pursuit  of  their  chosen  study. 

Nearly  all  of  the  biographies  appeared  originally  in  the 
Popular  Science  Monthly,  in  which  magazine  such  accounts 
have  long  been  considered  by  many  of  its  readers  one  of  its 
most  interesting  features.  The  accompanying  portraits,  as  will 
be  seen,  are  in  every  instance  well  authenticated.  In  collecting 
the  materials  for  the  Monthly  no  effort  was  spared  to  reach 
the  most  trustworthy  sources  of  information.  Surviving  rela- 
tives when  accessible,  the  records  of  educational  institutions, 
public  documents,  and  published  biographies  in  the  few  cases 
where  these  existed,  were  freely  consulted,  especial  care  being 
taken  to  verify  names,  dates,  and  other  important  facts.  The 
accuracy  thus  secured  in  the  first  instance  has  been  made  more 
perfect  by  a  thorough  revision  of  the  matter  for  this  volume. 

The  number  of  biographies  included  in  the  book  is  limited 
to  fifty.  Of  course  it  is  not  claimed  that  these  comprise  all  the 
names  in  American  science  that  are  entitled  to  a  like  distinc- 
tion ;  but  beginning  with  the  time  of  Franklin,  prior  to  which 
we  have  found  no  record  of  the  systematic  pursuit  of  science 
by  any  one  in  this  country,  the  plan  has  been  to  present  the 
various  personages  in  the  order  of  their  birth,  making  the  list 
as  complete  as  possible  as  far  as  it  went.  This  brings  it  down 
to  about  the  year  1810,  the  working  period  of  many  of  those 
included  thus  falling  within  the  present  century.  Should  the 
book  be  found  of  sufficient  interest  to  warrant  the  venture,  a 
second  volume  on  a  similar  plan  may  follow. 

I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  W.  H.  Larrabee  for  the  preparation  of 
the  sketch  which  opens  the  volume.  This  involved  a  long  and 
painstaking  search  through  a  very  considerable  literature,  and 
so  far  as  I  know  it  is  the  first  systematic  account  of  what 
Franklin  did  in  science  that  has  appeared.  My  acknowledg- 
ments are  also  due  to  Mr.  F.  A.  Fernald  for  valuable  aid  in  the 
work  of  revision  and  in  seeing  the  book  through  the  press. 

W.  J.  Y. 
NEW  YORK,  January  12,  1896. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN i 

Portrait  after  the  picture  in  pastel  by  Joseph  S.  Duplessis,  1783. 
JOHN  AND  WILLIAM  BARTRAM 24 

Portrait  of  William  Bartram  after  an  engraving  in  The  Cabinet  of 

Natural  History  and  American  Rural  Sports,  Philadelphia,  1832. 
JOHN  WINTHROP 40 

Portrait  after  a  painting  by  Copley  belonging  to  his  family. 
DAVID  RITTENHOUSE 47 

Portrait  after  a  painting  by  C.  W.  Peale. 
GOTTHILF  HEINRICH  ERNST  MUHLENBERG 58 

Portrait  after  a  painting  belonging  to  his  family. 
SAMUEL  LATHAM  MITCHILL 71  x 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  loaned  by  Dr.  Henry  Carrington  Bolton,  a 

kinsman. 
BENJAMIN  SMITH  BARTON 81 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  in  the  Biography  of  him  by  W.  P.  C.  Barton. 
ALEXANDER  WILSON 90 

Portrait  after  a  steel  engraving  by  W.  J.  Alais  in  Wilson's  Poems  and 

Literary  Prose. 
DAVID  HOSACK 100  — 

Portrait  after  a  painting  belonging  to  Columbia  College. 
AMOS  EATON in 

Portrait  after  a  steel  engraving  by  A.  H.  Ritchie. 
GERARD  TROOST '  .        .119 

Portrait  after  a  painting  in  the  Hall  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 

of  Philadelphia. 
CHARLES  ALEXANDRE  LESUEUR 128 

Portrait  after  a  painting  in  the  Hall  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 

of  Philadelphia. 
BENJAMIN  SILLIMAN,  THE  ELDER 140    „ 

Portrait  after  a  photograph  coloured  in  oil  belonging  to  his  family. 

v 


vi  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON 152 

Portrait  after  a  painting  by  George  P.  A.  Healy,  belonging  to  the  Bos- 
ton Society  of  Natural  History. 

LEWIS  DAVID  VON  SCHWEINITZ 167 

Portrait  after  a  miniature  belonging  to  his  family. 

ROBERT  HARE 176 

Portrait  after  a  painting  belonging  to  Mr.  Frederick  Prime. 

CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL    RAFINESQUE l82 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  in  his  Analyse  de  la  Nature. 
JAMES  POLLARD  ESPY 196 

Portrait  after  a  painting  in  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
THOMAS  NUTTALL 205 

Portrait  after  a  daguerreotype  formerly  belonging  to  Dr.  Asa  Gray. 
THOMAS  SAY 215 

Portrait  after  a  lithograph  in  the  Hall  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of 

Philadelphia. 
WILLIAM  CRANCH  BOND .223 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  in  the  Annals  of  Harvard  College  Observa- 
tory, Volume  VII. 
SAMUEL  FINLEY  BREESE  MORSE 234 

Portrait  from  a  photograph. 
DENISON  OLMSTED 250 

Portrait  after  a  steel  engraving  by  A.  H.  Ritchie  in  the  New  Eng- 

lander  for  August,  1859. 
ISAAC  LEA 260 

Portrait  after  an  etching  by  S.  J.  Ferris. 
LARDNER  VANUXEM 270 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  loaned  by  his  daughter. 

ELISHA  MITCHELL 279 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  loaned  by  Dr.  Henry  Carrington  Bolton,  a 
kinsman. 

EDWARD  HITCHCOCK 290 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  furnished  by  his  son. 

HENRY  ROWE  SCHOOLCRAFT 300 

Portrait  after  an  engraving  loaned  by  Gen.  James  Grant  Wilson. 

SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA 311 

Portrait  from  an  albertype  in   a  memorial  pamphlet  on  the  Dana 
family. 

ZADOC  THOMPSON »          319 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  procured  by  Prof.  G.  H.  Perkins,  of  the 
University  of  Vermont. 

JOHN  TORREY 327 

Portrait  after  a  painting  belonging  to  Columbia  College. 

GEORGE  CATLIN ..336 

Portrait  after  a  miniature  by  Watkins,  of  London. 


CONTENTS.  vij 

PAGE 

EBENEZER  EMMONS 347 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  loaned  by  his  son. 

JOSEPH  HENRY 354 

Portrait  from  a  photograph. 
JAMES  BLYTHE  ROGERS 368 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  loaned  by  his  daughter-in-law. 
JOHN  ERICSSON 374 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  by  M.  B.  Brady,  Washington. 
TIMOTHY  ABBOTT  CONRAD 385 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  made  by  his  nephew,  Dr.  Charles  Conrad 

Abbott. 
WILLIAM  STARLING  SULLIVANT 394 

Portrait  after  an  ambrotype. 
WILLIAM  WILLIAMS  MATHER    .        . 402 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  furnished  by  his  son. 
WILLIAM  BARTON  ROGERS 410 

Portrait  made  under  the  direction  of  Mrs.  Rogers. 
CHARLES  UPHAM  SHEPARD 419 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  furnished  by  his  son. 
SEARS  COOK  WALKER        .        .        . 428 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  furnished  by  his  brother. 
ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE 436 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  by  F.  Gutekunst,  Philadelphia. 
JAMES  HENRY  COFFIN 447 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  by  F.  Gutekunst,  Philadelphia. 
LEO  LESQUEREUX 458 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  by  Baker,  Columbus,  O. 
MATTHEW  FONTAINE  MAURY 464 

Portrait  after  a  photograph  taken  in  1871  by  Miley  &  Co.,  Lexing- 
ton, Va. 

JEAN  Louis  RODOLPHE  AGASSIZ 475 

Portrait  after  a  steel  engraving  by  C.  H.  Jeens  in  Volume  II  of  the 
Life  and  Correspondence  of  Agassiz. 

ARNOLD  HENRY  GUYOT 492 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  by  Pach  Bros.,  New  York  and  Princeton. 

DAVID  DALE  OWEN 500 

Portrait  from  a  photograph  loaned  by  his  son. 


viii  CONTENTS. 


ILLUSTRATIONS   IN   THE   TEXT. 

FIG.  PAGE 

1.  Bartram's  House  in  1887 25 

2.  Cypress  Tree  in  Bartram  Park 31 

3.  Nether  Stone  of  John  Bartram's  Cider  Mill 38 

4.  The  Dana  House.     First  Observatory  of  Harvard  College     .         .        .  229 

5.  Prof.  Morse's  First  Telegraph  Instrument 240 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA. 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN. 

1706-1791. 

No  man  in  the  eighteenth  century  gained  a  wider  fame,  or 
one  which  has  been  less  modified  by  the  hundred  years  that 
have  intervened,  than  Benjamin  Franklin.  We  might  be  led  to 
believe  at  first  thought  that  the  extraordinary  repute  into 
which  he  rose  was  relative,  and  that  the  world's  appreciation 
of  him,  and  particularly  the  feeling  of  his  own  countrymen,  was 
exaggerated  by  the  surprise  that  the  colonies,  then  so  young 
and  primitive,  should  have  produced  so  able  and  versatile  a 
man.  But  this  would  be  an  incorrect  view.  Franklin's  fame 
was  a  tribute  to  his  real  eminence.  The  more  his  life  and 
achievements  are  studied  the  more  clearly  does  it  appear  that 
Franklin's  greatness  was  of  the  whole  world  and  would  have 
been  as  prominent  in  any  age ;  and  that  in  any  group  of 
leaders  of  progress,  from  whatever  time  or  nation  they  might 
be  selected,  he  would  find  his  place  near  the  head. 

Franklin's  history  is  so  universally  familiar  that  more  than 
a  mere  reference  in  this  sketch  to  such  of  the  personal  and 
political  events  of  his  life  as  constitute  the  staple  of  most  of 
the  biographies  of  him  would  be  superfluous.  Giving  the 
briefest  summary  of  the  principal  dates,  our  account  will  be  de- 
voted to  that  part  of  his  work  which  contributed  to  the  ad- 
vancement of  science. 

Benjamin  Franklin  was  born  in  Boston,  January  17,  1706, 
"  the  youngest  son  of  the  youngest  son  for  five  generations," 
the  fifteenth  child  of  his  father  and  the  eighth  of  his  mother, 
who  was  a  second  wife,  out  of  a  family  of  seventeen.  His 
father  was  a  Nonconformist  emigrant  from  England,  out  of  an 


2  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

honourable  family  of  the  working  class,  "  a  man  of  strength  and 
prudence  of  character."  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Peter 
Folger,  author  of  a  volume  of  poems,  A  Looking  Glass  for  the 
Times,  asserting  liberty  of  conscience. 

Franklin's  earlier  years  were  spent  in  the  soap  and  candle 
factory  of  his  father  till  the  age  of  twelve,  when  he  became  an 
apprentice  in  the  printing  office  of  his  brother  James,  and 
began  to  cultivate  his  literary  tastes  and  write  for  publica- 
tion. On  account  of  disagreements  with  his  brother  he  stole 
away  from  Boston  and  went  to  Philadelphia  in  1723,  and  there 
met  that  curious  series  of  adventures  the  story  of  which  has 
been,  and  continues  to  be,  so  entertaining  to  American  youth. 
Here,  too,  his  active  life,  so  far  as  it  directly  affected  the 
world,  began. 

Franklin  tells  us  in  his  autobiography  that  his  father  took 
great  pains  to  train  his  children  to  habits  of  honesty  and 
industry.  One  of  the  earliest  lessons  he  taught  the  boy — it 
was  in  the  affair  of  appropriating  the  building  stones  to  make 
a  fishing  wharf — was,  when  he  pleaded  the  usefulness  of  the 
work,  to  convince  him  that  nothing  was  useful  which  was  not 
honest.  This  father  "was  skilled  a  little  in  music,"  both  with 
the  voice  and  on  the  violin,  had  a  mechanical  genius,  and  was 
handy  on  occasion  in  the  use  of  other  trades  than  his  own ; 
"  but  his  great  excellence  lay  in  a  sound  understanding  and 
solid  judgment  in  prudential  matters,  both  in  private  and 
public  affairs";  and  he  was  frequently  visited  for  consultation 
in  matters  of  both  kinds.  "  At  the  table  he  liked  to  have,  as 
often  as  he  could,  some  sensible  friend  or  neighbour  to  con- 
verse with,  and  always  took  care  to  start  some  ingenious  or 
useful  topic  for  discourse,  which  might  tend  to  improve  the 
minds  of  his  children.  By  this  means  he  turned  our  attention 
to  what  was  good,  just,  and  prudent  in  the  conduct  of  life." 
The  father  had  intended  to  devote  the  boy,  "  as  the  tithe  of 
his  sons,"  to  the  service  of  the  Church,  and  was  encouraged  in 
this  design  by  his  early  readiness  in  learning  to  read,  and  the 
opinion  of  his  friends,  who  discerned  signs  of  scholarly  promise 
in  him;  but,  in  view  of  the  expense  of  a  college  education, 
"and  the  mean  living  many  so  educated  were  afterward  able 
to  obtain,"  changed  his  first  intention  and  took  him  from  the 
grammar  school,  where  he  had  been  preparing,  and  sent  him  to 
a  school  for  writing  and  arithmetic.  Franklin  "  acquired  fair 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN.  3 

writing  pretty  well,"  but  failed  in  arithmetic.  Then  he 
was  placed  in  the  chandler's  shop,  and  gained  the  rest  of 
his  education  there,  in  the  printing  office,  and  in  practical  life. 

Having  developed  a  strong  taste  for  reading,  Franklin 
eagerly  devoured  such  books 'as  came  within  his  reach.  He 
adopted  a  vegetable  diet  and  applied  the  money  he  saved  there- 
by to  the  purchase  of  books,  while  he  devoted  the  time  he 
could  gain  from  his  meals  to  reading.  His  collection  of  books 
was  a  miscellaneous  one,  but  it  included  some  works,  like  The 
Spectator  and  others  of  its  kind,  that  were  remarkable  for  the 
graces  of  their  style,  and  some  that  were  quickening  to  thought. 
Perceiving  the  defects  in  his  own  style  as  a  writer,  he  undertook 
to  cultivate  it  systematically. 

The  printer  Keimer,  Franklin's  employer  in  Philadelphia, 
loved  argument  and  engaged  in  many  disputations  with  his 
journeyman.  Franklin  practised  himself  in  the  Socratic  method 
of  discussion,  and  had  much  amusement,  with  great  advantage  to 
himself  in  self-discipline,  in  drawing  the  old  printer  unawares  into 
quandaries  by  leading  questions,  begetting  difficulties  and  contra- 
dictions, till  he  became  accustomed,  before  answering  even  com- 
mon questions,  to  ask,  "  What  do  you  intend  to  infer  from  that  ? " 

On  his  return  from  a  visit  to  England  in  1726,  Franklin 
formed  a  club  or  debating  society  among  his  friends,  called  the 
Junto,  and  drew  up  its  rules.  Every  member  of  this  associa- 
tion was  required  in  turn  to  produce  one  or  more  queries  on 
some  point  of  morals,  politics,  or  natural  philosophy  for  dis- 
cussion by  the  company ;  and  once  in  three  months  to  read  an 
essay  of  his  own  writing,  on  any  subject  he  might  select.  The 
debates  were  expected  to  be  conducted  in  the  sincere  spirit  of 
inquiry  after  truth,  without  fondness  for  dispute,  desire  of  vic- 
tory, expression  of  positiveness  in  opinion,  or  direct  contradic- 
tion. Applicants  for  admission  to  this  society  were  asked  a  list 
of  questions  intended  to  determine  that  they  were  catholic  in 
spirit  or  free  from  bigotry  or  strong  prepossession,  culminating  in 
the  interrogatory,  "  Do  you  love  truth  for  truth's  sake,  and  will 
you  endeavour  impartially  to  find  and  receive  it  yourself,  and 
communicate  it  to  others?" 

A  selection  from  the  questions  discussed  in  the  Junto  was 
made  by  Dr.  William  Smith  from  a  record  which  came  into  his 
possession  at  the  time  the  American  Philosophical  Society  was 
instituted.  They  indicate  a  desire  for  the  real  increase  of 


4  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

knowledge  among  the  members  that  may  very  well  have  borne 
fruit  later  in  the  formation  of  the  larger  and  more  learned 
body,  of  which  the  Junto  was  the  forerunner,  if  not  the  direct 
parent.  Certain  of  these  questions  pertain  to  the  nature  of 
sound — is  it  an  entity  or  a  body  ?  to  the  origin  of  vapours;  the 
extent  of  the  domain  of  self-interest ;  the  best  form  of  govern- 
ment and  the  first ;  whether  one  form  of  government  can  suit 
all  mankind ;  the  reason  for  the  tides  being  higher  in  the  Bay 
of  Fundy  than  in  the  Delaware ;  the  safety  of  paper  money ; 
knowledge  of  happiness;  the  utilization  of  the  lakes;  the  cause 
of  smoky  chimneys ;  why  candle  flames  are  spiral ;  and  sub- 
jects relating  to  metaphysics  and  human  nature. 

Franklin's  plan  for  the  members  of  the  Junto  to  bring  their 
books  together  and  form  a  library  for  common  consultation 
did  not  work  well  in  practice,  and  was  given  up  after  the  end 
of  the  first  year;  but  the  idea  of  the  collection  kept  a-working 
in  Franklin's  mind,  and  he  started  a  subscription  for  a  public 
library.  The  institution  was  chartered  and  became,  Franklin 
says,  "  the  mother  of  all  the  North  American  subscription  libra- 
ries .  .  .  a  great  thing  itself,  and  continually  increasing."  *  Of 
its  immediate  results,  Franklin  relates  that  it  "  soon  manifested 
its  utility,  was  imitated  by  other  towns  and  in  other  provinces. 
The  libraries  were  augmented  by  donations;  reading  became 
fashionable;  and  our  people,  having  no  public  amusements  to 
divert  their  attention  from  study,  became  better  acquainted 
with  books,  and  in  a  few  years  were  observed  by  strangers  to 
be  better  instructed  and  more  intelligent  than  people  of  the 
same  rank  generally  are  in  other  countries."  To  Franklin  the 
library  afforded  the  means  of  improvement  by  constant  study, 
for  which  he  set  apart  an  hour  or  two  each  day,  and  thus,  he 
says,  supplied  in  some  degree  the  lack  of  the  learned  education 
which  his  father  had  once  intended  for  him. 

The  inscribed  tablet  on  the  front  of  the  building  of  the 
library  bears  record  that  it  was  instituted  at  the  instance  of 
Benjamin  Franklin.  Thomas  Penn,  presenting  the  library  with 
an  air  pump  in  1738,  accredited  the  Library  Company  with  being 
"the  first  that  encouraged  knowledge  and  learning  in  the  Prov- 
ince of  Pennsylvania."  "  The  praise  is  not  ill  deserved,"  says 
Duyckinck,  as  at  the  time  of  the  foundation  of  the  library 

*  The  Philadelphia  Library,  on  Fifth  Street,  facing  the  State  House  Square. 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN.  5 

"  there  was  not  even  a  good  bookstore  accessible  nearer  than 
Boston." 

In  the  scheme  for  the  formation  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society,  which  was  drawn  up  in  1743  and  brought  forward 
in  that  or  the  following  year,  Franklin  observed  that  the  hard- 
est drudgery  of  the  early  settlement  of  the  colonies  having 
been  performed,  there  were  many  persons  in  every  province  in 
circumstances  that  set  them  at  ease  and  afforded  them  leisure 
to  cultivate  the  fine  arts  and  improve  the  common  stock  of 
knowledge.  "  To  such  of  those  who  are  men  of  speculation 
many  hints  must  from  time  to  time  arise,  many  observations 
occur,  which  if  well  examined,  pursued,  and  improved,  might 
produce  discoveries  to  the  advantage  of  some  or  all  the  British 
plantations,  or  to  the  benefit  of  mankind  in  general."  As  a 
remedy  for  the  wide  separation  of  such  persons,  whereby  many 
useful  particulars  might  remain  uncommunicated,  die  with  the 
discoverers,  and  be  lost  to  mankind,  it  was  suggested  that  one 
society  be  formed  of  virtuosi  or  ingenious  men,  residing  in  the 
several  colonies,  who  should  maintain  constant  correspondence ; 
Philadelphia  to  be  its  headquarters,  because  it  was  the  most 
central  place ;  and  that  there  should  be  always  at  least  seven 
members — a  physician,  a  mechanician,  a  geographer,  and  a  gen- 
eral natural  philosopher — who  should  meet  once  a  month  or 
oftener,  to  exchange  communications  with  one  another,  take 
care  and  notice  of  the  papers  of  correspondence,  and  distribute 
copies  of  communications  of  value  to  more  distant  members 
in  order  to  get  their  opinions  upon  them.  Among  the  subjects 
to  which  the  society  should  give  attention  were  included  the 
recognised  branches  of  science  and  the  useful  arts,  and  "all 
philosophical  experiments  that  let  light  into  the  nature  of  things, 
tend  to  increase  the  power  of  man  over  matter,  and  multiply 
the  conveniences  and  pleasures  of  life."  The  plan  also  made 
provision  for  correspondence  with  the  Royal  Society  of  Lon- 
don and  the  Dublin  Society ;  for  the  distribution  of  quarterly 
abstracts  of  proceedings;  and  for  the  publication  of  annual 
collections  of  experiments,  discoveries,  and  improvements.  On 
the  5th  of  April,  1744,  Franklin  wrote  to  Cadwallader  Golden 
"  that  the  society,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  Philadelphia,  is  actually 
formed,  and  has  had  several  meetings,  to  mutual  satisfaction." 
Its  meetings  were  kept  up  for  about  ten  years  and  then  discon- 
tinued. Another  society,  called  at  first  the  Junto,  was  formed 


6  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

in  1750,  consisting,  it  is  supposed,  of  members  of  the  old  Junto. 
It  enlarged  its  scope  and  its  name  in  1766,  and  again  in  1768, 
and  became  "  the  American  Society,  held  at  Philadelphia,  for 
Promoting  Useful  Knowledge."  Franklin  was  made  its  presi- 
dent. The  original  American  Philosophical  Society  was  resus- 
citated in  1767  by  six  of  the  old  members,  to  whom  otrierswere 
afterward  added.  In  January,  1769,  the  two  societies  were 
united  as  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and  Franklin  was 
elected  president,  after  an  exciting  contest  with  the  Hon.  James 
Hamilton,  president  of  the  original  society  of  that  name.  He 
continued  to  be  president  till  his  death  in  1791. 

Franklin's  useful  activity  as  a  citizen  was  visible  every- 
where during  his  life  in  Philadelphia.  A  paper  on  fires,  which 
he  read  in  the  Junto  and  published  in  1736,  gave  rise  to  a  proj- 
ect for  forming  a  fire  company.  Some  thirty  persons  were 
found  to  engage  in  the  scheme.  This  act  was  the  suggestion 
for  the  formation  of  other  fire  companies. 

When  applied  to  for  a  subscription  for  the  establishment  of 
a  hospital  he  was  told,  to  enlist  his  more  active  interest  in  the 
scheme,  that  the  people  would  not  take  hold  unless  he  was  in  it. 
He  secured  a  charter  and  a  grant  for  the  institution  from  the 
Legislature.  Of  his  agency  and  course  in  this  matter  he  char- 
acteristically observes  :  "  I  do  not  remember  any  of  my  political 
manoeuvres  the  success  of  which  gave  me  at  the  time  more 
pleasure,  or  wherein,  after  thinking  of  it,  I  more  easily  excused 
myself  for  having  made  some  use  of  cunning." 

Again  we  find  him  pioneering  in  the  improvement  of  the 
street  pavements.  He  had  the  street  around  Jersey  Market 
paved,  and  contracted  with  a  man  to  keep  it  swept.  A  general 
awakening  on  the  subject  followed,  paving  was  done  all  over 
the  city,  and  shortly  became  the  object  of  a  law.  Subsequent- 
ly, on  one  of  his  visits  to  England,  he  published  plans  for 
cleaning  the  streets  of  London  and  Westminster.  The  first 
street  lamps  set  up  in  Philadelphia  were  dim  and  smoky. 
Franklin  inquired  into  the  causes  of  the  inefficiency  of  their 
light,  and  found  that  they  were  closed  at  the  bottom  so  as  to 
cut  off  the  draught.  By  his  direction  the  bottom  was  opened; 
the  form  of  the  lamp  was  changed  from  a  globe  to  a  lantern 
of  four  flat  panes,  with  a  funnel  above  to  draw  up  the  smoke. 
This  form  of  lamp  prevailed  in  our  cities  till  recently,  and  may 
still  be  found  in  many  towns  where  gas  lights  are  used. 


*%•  BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN.  7 

Having  published  propositions  relating  to  the  education  of 
youth  in  Pennsylvania,  Franklin  started  a  subscription  for  an 
academy  that  was  opened  in  1749.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
building  committee  of  the  institution  and  of  the  board  of 
trustees.  It  was  incorporated  as  "  the  College,  Academy,  and 
Charitable  School  of  Philadelphia  "  in  1755  ;  its  funds  were  in- 
creased by  contributions  from  Great  Britain  ;  land  was  granted 
to  it  by  the  proprietaries  and  other  land  was  added  by  the 
Assembly ;  and  the  institution  grew  into  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

In  1742  Franklin  invented  the  Franklin  stove,  with  pro- 
vision for  warming  the  fresh  air  on  its  entering.  The  merits 
and  advantages  of  this  new  method  of  warming  rooms,  which 
was  claimed  also  to  be  superior  in  economy  to  the  former 
methods,  were  set  forth  in  detail  in  his  pamphlet  on  "  The  New- 
invented  Pennsylvania  Freplaces."  Franklin  made  a  present 
of*  the  model  of  the  stove  to  his  friend  Robert  Grace,  who, 
being  the  proprietor  of  an  iron  furnace,  found  the  casting  of 
them  profitable.  Governor  Thomas  was  so  pleased  with 
Franklin's  description  of  the  stoves  that  he  offered  him  a 
patent  upon  them ;  but  this  Franklin  declined  from  a  principle 
which  he  says  had  ever  weighed  upon  him  on  such  occasions — 
"that  as  we  enjoy  great  advantages  from  the  inventions  of 
others,  we  should  be  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  serve  others  by 
an  invention  of  ours  ;  and  this  we  should  do  freely  and  gener- 
ously." An  ironmonger  of  London,  having  made  some  small 
changes  in  the  stove,  "  which  rather  hurt  its  operation,"  pat- 
ented it  and  made  a  little  fortune  out  of  it.  "  And  this,"  says 
Franklin,  "  is  not  the  only  instance  of  patents  taken  out  for 
my  inventions  by  others,  though  not  always  with  the  same 
success,  which  I  never  contested,  having  no  desire  to  profit  by 
patents  myself,  and  hating  disputes." 

In  time  Franklin  yielded  to  his  taste  for  investigation  and 
public  discussions  and  retired  from  private  business,  flattering 
himself,  as  he  said,  that  by  the  sufficient  though  moderate  for- 
tune he  had  acquired  he  had  secured  leisure  during  the  rest  of 
his  life  for  philosophical  studies  and  amusements.  But  the 
public,  he  complained,  now  considering  him  a  man  of  leisure, 
laid  hold  of  him  for  their  purposes,  every  part  of  the  civil 
government,  and  almost  at  the  same  time,  imposing  some  duty 
upon  him. 


8  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE  IN   AMERICA. 

One  of  the  schemes  from  which  he  evidently  anticipated 
much  enjoyment  was  the  pursuit  of  his  electrical  experi- 
ments, for  which  he  purchased  the  apparatus  of  Dr.  Spence, 
who  had  come  from  England  to  lecture  here.  Franklin  had 
met  Dr.  Spence,  then  recently  come  over  from  Scotland,  in 
Boston,  in  1746,  and  was  shown  some  experiments  which, 
though  imperfectly  performed,  were  novel,  and  equally  surpris- 
ing and  pleasing  to  him.  Soon  afterward  the  Library  Com- 
pany received  from  Mr.  Peter  Collinson,  of  the  Royal  Society, 
an  account  of  the  new  German  experiments  in  electricity, 
with  a  glass  tube  and  directions  for  using  it.  Franklin  at  once 
improved  the  opportunity  to  repeat  the  experiments  he  had  wit- 
nessed in  Boston.  He  also  practised  upon  others  accounts  of 
which  had  been  received  from  England,  and  added  new  ones. 
So  many  persons  were  attracted  to  his  house  to  see  the  wonders 
he  could  perform  that  he  was  in  danger  of  being  overworked  ; 
so  he  had  a  number  of  the  tubes  blown  and  distributed  among 
his  friends,  who  were  thus  enabled  to  divide  with  him  the  bur- 
den of  entertaining  the  sightseers.  A  Mr.  Kinnersley,  being 
out  of  business,  was  furnished  with  instruments  of  a  little  finer 
make,  and  charged  with  two  lectures  prepared  by  Franklin,  "in 
which  the  experiments  were  ranged  in  such  order  and  accom- 
panied by  such  explanations  in  such  method  as  that  the  fore- 
going should  assist  in  comprehending  the  following";  and  he 
proceeded  to  show  the  experiments  for  money.  In  return  for 
Mr.  Collinson's  favours,  Franklin  sent  him  accounts  of  his  ex- 
periments, which  were  read  in  the  Royal  Society,  but  were  not 
thought  there  "worth  so  much  notice  as  to  be  printed  in  the 
Transactions."  "One  paper,"  says  Franklin,  "  which  I  wrote 
for  Mr.  Kinnersley,  on  the  sameness  of  lightning  with  elec- 
tricity, I  sent  to  Dr.  Mitchell,  an  acquaintance  of  mine  and 
one  of  the  members  also  of  that  society,  who  wrote  to  me  that 
it  had  been  read  but  was  laughed  at  by  the  connoisseurs.  The 
papers,  however,  being  shown  to  Dr.  Fothergill,  he  thought 
them  of  too  much  value  to  be  stifled,  and  advised  the  printing 
of  them.  Mr.  Collinson  then  gave  them  to  Mr.  Cave  for  pub- 
lication in  his  Gentleman's  Magazine,  but  he  chose  to  print 
them  separately  in  a  pamphlet,  and  Dr.  Fothergill  wrote  the 
preface.  Cave,  it  seems,  judged  rightly  for  his  profit,  for  by 
the  additions  that  arrived  afterward  they  swelled  to  a  quarto 
volume  .  .  .  and  cost  him  nothing  for  copy  money.  It  was 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  9 

some  tim'e,  however,  before  the  papers  were  much  taken  notice 
of  in  England.  A  copy  of  them  happening  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  Count  de  Buffon  ...  he  prevailed  with  M.  Doli- 
baud  to  translate  them  into  French,  and  they  were  printed  in 
Paris.  The  publication  offended  the  Abbe  Nollet,  preceptor  in 
natural  philosophy  to  the  royal  family,  and  an  able  experi- 
menter who  had  formed  and  published  a  theory  of  electricity 
which  then  had  general  vogue.  He  could  not  at  first  believe 
that  such  a  work  came  from  America,  and  said  it  must  have 
been  fabricated  by  his  enemies  in  Paris  to  decry  his  system. 
Afterward,  having  been  assured  that  there  really  existed  such  a 
person  as  Franklin  in  Philadelphia,  which  he  had  doubted,  he 
wrote  and  published  a  volume  of  letters,  chiefly  addressed  to 
me,  and  denying  the  validity  of  my  experiments  and  of  the 
positions  deduced  from  them."  Franklin  thought  at  first  of 
answering  the  abbe,  but  he  reflected  that  every  one  might  re- 
peat and  verify  the  experiments,  and  that  he  was  not  obliged 
to  defend  observations  offered  as  conjectures  and  not  dogmat- 
ically, and  that  a  controversy  would  not  be  worth  while.  The 
abbe  was  refuted  by  M.  le  Roy,  of  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Sciences.  Franklin's  book  was  translated  into  other  languages, 
and  the  doctrine  it  contained  was  by  degrees  universally  adopted 
by  philosophers. 

A  sudden  and  general  celebrity  was  given  to  the  book  by 
the  success  of  one  of  the  experiments  proposed  in  it,  in  the 
hands  of  MM.  Dolibaud  and  De  Lor  at  Marly,  for  drawing 
lightning  from  the  clouds.  This  engaged  public  attention 
everywhere.  M.  De  Lor's  repetitions  of  the  "  Philadelphia  ex- 
periment," having  been  performed  before  the  king  and  court, 
was  visited  by  all  the  curious  of  Paris.  Franklin  was  greatly 
pleased,  and  soon  afterward  made  a  similar  one — his  famous 
kite  experiment — in  Philadelphia. 

Dr.  Wright,  an  English  physician,  then  in  Paris,  took  up 
Franklin's  case  and  wrote  to  a  friend  in  the  Royal  Society, 
which  had  neglected  the  philosopher,  concerning  the  high 
estate  to  which  his  experiments  had  risen  among  the  learned 
abroad,  and  expressing  wonder  that  so  little  notice  was  taken 
of  them  in  England.  Dr.  Watson  drew  up  an  account  of  these 
and  others  of  Franklin's  papers,  and  it  was  printed  in  the 
Transactions.  Some  of  the  members  of  the  Royal  Society 
themselves  drew  lightning  from  the  clouds,  and  in  the  end 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Franklin  was  unanimously  elected  a  member  of  that  learned 
body  without  application  from  him;  and  in  recognition,  as  it 
were,  of  the  honour  conferred  upon  the  society  rather  than 
upon  him  by  the  connection,  he  was  excused  from  making  the 
customary  payment. 

Franklin's  literary  work  was  a  part  and  a  product  of  his  un- 
ceasing activity.  Always  doing  or  observing,  he  was  always 
thinking  and  learning;  and  what  he  thought  and  learned  he 
was  ready  to  communicate  at  once  to  some  one  of  his  numer- 
ous correspondents  who  would  be  interested  by  it  or  might 
derive  advantage  from  it.  When  his  observations  had  borne 
fruit  in  some  discovery  or  practicable  scheme,  he  embodied  the 
result  in  some  essay  or  paper,  which  likewise,  most  usually, 
took  the  form  of  a  letter  to  a  friend.  The  spirit  of  the  hour,  as 
Mr.  G.  Brown  Goode  well  said  at  the  American  Philosophical 
Society's  commemoration  of  the  centennial  of  Franklin's  death, 
was  his  constant  inspiration,  "  and  his  writings  were  a  legiti- 
mate result,  the  natural  outgrowth  of  his  activity  in  all  matters 
of  public  concern.  Admirable  in  themselves,  their  chief  inter- 
est is  nevertheless  due  to  the  fact  that  they  form  so  complete 
a  record  of  the  deeds  and  the  personal  character  of  their 
author.  Though  he  was  a  voluminous  writer,  and  one  of  the 
great  masters  of  English  expression,  Franklin  wrote  habitually 
with  a  single  eye  to  immediate  practical  results.  He  never 
posed  for  posterity." 

One  of  the  most  salient  features  of  his  scientific  writings  is 
the  broadness  of  his  interests  in  that  field.  Nothing  that  could 
conduce  to  the  advancement  of  knowledge  or  to  the  promo- 
tion of  the  well-being  of  men — for  which  knowledge  was  to  be 
valued — escaped  his  attention.  He  was  most  deeply  interested 
in  matters  that  concerned  health  and  comfort;  domestic  econ- 
omy, the  art  of  getting  along,  of  making  life  easier  and  more 
profitable,  of  saving  and  of  improving  what  one  had,  followed ; 
related  to  this  was  interest  in  the  introduction  to  his  country- 
men of  new  products  and  additional  sources  of  revenue,  con- 
cerning which  there  are  many  letters;  and  from  these  he  went 
into  all  the  fields  of  pure  science  in  which  the  thought  of  the 
day  busied  itself.  If  the  subject  were  not  one  on  which  he  had 
himself  experimented  or  a  scheme  on  which  he  had  some 
definite  plan,  he  could  discuss  the  observations  of  others  and 
present  speculations  which  were  always  sagacious  respecting 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  ZI 

the  nature  and  causes  of  phenomena;  though,  in  view  of  the 
primitive  condition  of  scientific  knowledge  in  his  day,  it  would 
be  too  much  to  expect  that  they  should  always  be  correct. 
They  were,  however,  usually  in  advance  of  what  was  known. 

His  outline  of  the  subjects  which  he  thought  should  come 
within  the  range  of  the  discussions  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society  gives  only  a  partial  summary  of  the  matters  in 
which  he  ultimately  became  interested.  It  embraces  all  newly 
discovered  plants,  herbs,  trees,  roots,  their  virtues,  uses,  etc. ; 
methods  of  propagating  them,  and  making  such  as  are  useful, 
but  particular  to  some  plantations,  more  general;  improve- 
ments of  vegetable  juices,  such  as  ciders,  wines,  etc. ;  methods 
of  curing  or  preventing  diseases ;  all  new-discovered  fossils  in 
different  countries,  as  mines,  minerals,  and  quarries;  new  and 
useful  improvements  in  any  branch  of  mathematics;  new  dis- 
coveries in  chemistry,  such  as  improvements  in  distillation, 
brewing,  and  assaying  of  ores;  new  mechanical  inventions  for 
saving  labor,  as  mills  and  carriages,  and  for  raising  and  con- 
veying of  waters,  draining  of  meadows,  etc. ;  all  new  arts, 
trades,  and  manufactures  that  may  be  proposed  or  thought  of; 
surveys,  maps,  and  charts  of  particular  parts  of  the  seacoasts 
or  inland  countries  ;  course  and  junction  of  rivers  and  great 
roads,  situation  of  lakes  and  mountains,  nature  of  the  soil  and 
productions;  new  methods  of  improving  the  breed  of  useful 
animals;  introducing  other  sorts  from  foreign  countries ;  new 
improvements  in  planting,  gardening,  and  clearing  land;  and 
all  philosophical  experiments  that  let  light  into  the  nature  of 
things,  tend  to  increase  the  power  of  man  over  matter,  and 
multiply  the  conveniences  or  pleasures  of  life. 

The  most  important  among  Franklin's  contributions  to 
science  were  his  experiments  in  electricity,  which  culminated 
in  the  demonstration  that  lightning  is  an  electrical  phenome- 
non, and  in  the  introduction  of  lightning  rods  as  a  means  of 
protecting  buildings.  We  have  already  referred  to  the  begin- 
ning of  these  experiments.  They  were  continued  through 
Franklin's  life,  and  were  the  subject  of  frequent  correspond- 
ence between  him  and  such  of  his  friends  as  were  interested  in 
"  philosophy,"  as  he  called  it.  In  this  correspondence  a  variety 
of  methods  of  experimenting  and  many  novel  experiences  were 
described.  The  investigators  constructed  their  own  machines — 
frictional  machines — and  with  them  made  new  demonstrations  of 


12  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

the  properties  and  powers  of  frictional  electricity,  now  familiar, 
but  in  those  days  original  and  startling  discoveries.  The  bril- 
liancy of  these  experiments,  said  Dr.  J.  W.  Holland,  of  Jefferson 
Medical  College,  at  the  centennial  commemoration,  "  depended 
mainly  on  Franklin's  discovery  that  the  electricity  of  the  Ley- 
den  jar  was  stored  up  on  the  glass,  and  that  by  increasing  the 
extent  of  excited  surface  the  energy  was  proportionately  multi- 
plied. The  power  thus  obtained  made  it  appear  highly  prob- 
able that  the  difference  between  the  spark  and  the  lightning 
flash  was  one  of  degree  " — as  was  ultimately  proved.  "  In  a 
hundred  years,"  Dr.  Holland  adds,  "  but  little  has  been  added  to 
what  Franklin  revealed  concerning  the  electricity  of  friction." 
In  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Paris, 
in  1779,  Franklin  gave  an  explanation  of  the  aurora  borealis 
as  a  phenomenon  of  atmospheric  electricity  which  still  holds 
good  as  to  its  general  principles,  although  the  details  have 
been  modified  by  recent  discoveries ;  but  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  grasped  the  connection  between  electricity  and  magnet- 
ism, for,  in  a  letter  written  in  1773  to  M.  Dubourg,  in  Paris,  he 
gives  it  as  his  "  real  opinion  that  these  two  powers  of  Nature 
have  no  real  affinity  with  others,  and  that  the  apparent  produc- 
tion of  magnetism  [by  electricity]  is  purely  accidental ";  and 
he  gives  ten  points  in  explanation  and  proof  of  this  view. 

The  next  most  important  of  Franklin's  labours  in  the  field 
of  practical  science  is  represented,  perhaps,  by  his  invention 
of  a  stove  and  his  study  of  the  causes  and  cure  of  smoky 
chimneys.  The  Franklin  stove  was  not  merely  the  porta- 
ble open  grate  or  fireplace  with  which  the  name  is  usually 
associated,  but  was  a  philosophically  constructed  heating  ap- 
paratus, based  upon  a  careful  study  of  the  properties  of 
warm  air  and  the  diffusion  of  heat,  and  embodied  the  principles 
which  have  since  been  applied  in  endless  variety  in  the  con- 
struction of  stoves  of  every  shape  and  of  hot-air  warming 
apparatus.  He  further  devised  a  stove  in  which  all  the 
smoke  was  turned  to  account  and  operated  as  fuel  in  heating 
the  rooms,  which,  when  tried,  answered  even  beyond  his  ex- 
pectations. His  studies  of  smoky  chimneys  furnished  a  remedy 
for  what  was  in  his  day  one  of  the  most  crying  miseries  of 
domestic  life.  Connected  with  this  subject  is  that  of  ventila- 
tion to  which  he  gave  much  attention  ;  and  he  is  credited  with 
being  the  first  person  who  observed  that  respiration  communi- 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  j^ 

cated  a  noxious  quality  to  the  air,  and  that  the  atmosphere 
was  poisoned  by  effluvia  emitted  from  the  body. 

Franklin's  interest  in  matters  of  health  and  sanitation  is 
further  illustrated  in  the  provision  made  in  his  will  in  behalf  of 
a  water  supply  for  Philadelphia ;  in  his  experiments  in  ventila- 
tion and  his  efforts  to  improve  our  means  of  keeping  ourselves 
warm ;  and  by  frequent  references  in  his  letters  to  matters  of 
health.  He  had  very  definite  ideas  in  regard  to  disease  and 
its  cause,  which  in  many  points  went  against  the  medical  theo- 
ries of  the  day.  Some  of  these  were  emphatically  expressed 
in  his  paper  on  colds.  In  a  letter  on  the  treatment  of  hospital 
patients*  he  recommended  light  covering  and  abundance  of 
fresh  air,  declared  that  the  idea  that  perspiration  was  better 
under  thick  clothes  was  fallacious ;  and  expressed  himself  con- 
vinced from  certain  experiments  of  what  he  had  before  sus- 
pected, that  "  the  opinion  of  perspiration  being  checked  by 
cold  is  an  error,  as  well  as  that  of  rheum  being  occasioned 
by  cold.  But  this  is  heresy  here,  and  perhaps  may  be  so  with 
you.  I  only  whisper  it,  and  expect  you  will  keep  my  secret. 
Our  physicians  have  discovered  that  fresh  air  is  good  for 
people  in  the  smallpox  and  other  fevers.  I  hope  in  time  they 
will  find  out  that  it  does  no  harm  to  people  in  health." 

With  singular  prevision  of  what  science  was  to  develop, 
Franklin  wrote  to  Priestley  in  1774,  almost  at  the  date  of  the 
birth  of  modern  chemistry :  "  That  the  vegetable  creation 
should  restore  the  air  which  is  spoiled  by  the  animal  part  of 
it  looks  like  a  rational  system,  and  seems  to  be  of  a  piece 
with  the  rest.  We  knew  before  that  putrid  animal  substances 
were  converted  into  sweet  vegetable  when  mixed  with  the 
earth  and  applied  as  manure ;  and  now  it  seems  that  the  same\ 
putrid  substances,  mixed  with  the  air,  have  the  same  effect. 
The  strong  thriving  state  of  your  mint  in  putrid  air  seems  to 
show  that  the  air  is  mended  by  taking  something  from  it,  and 
not  by  adding  to  it."  To  this  he  added — another  heresy  in 
those  times — that  he  did  not  believe  the  woods  were  unhealthy. 

Another  prophecy  is  embodied  in  Franklin's  views  on  the 
progress  of  storms.  He  ventured  the  theory  in  1747  f  that 
though  the  course  of  the  wind  in  storms  is  from  northeast  to 


*  To  Mr.  Leroy,  from  London,  1773. 
f  In  a  letter  to  Jared  Eliot. 


!4  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE    IN  AMERICA. 

southwest,  the  course  of  the  storm  is  from  southwest  to  north- 
east— "  that  is,  the  air  is  in  violent  motion  in  Virginia  before 
it  moves  in  Connecticut,  and  in  Connecticut  before  it  moves  at 
Cape  Sable."  In  1760  he  wrote:*  "  Our  northeast  storms  be- 
gin in  point  of  time  in  the  southwest  parts — that  is  to  say,  the 
air  in  Georgia,  the  furthest  of  our  colonies  to  the  southwest, 
begins  to  move  southwesterly  before  the  air  of  Carolina,  which 
is  the  next  colony  northeastward ;  the  air  of  Carolina  has  the 
same  motion  before  the  air  of  Virginia,  which  lies  still  more 
northeastward ;  and  so  on,  northeasterly  through  Pennsyl- 
vania, New  York,  New  England,  etc." 

Concerning  the  origin  of  springs  Franklin  wrote  to  Jared 
Eliot,  in  1747,  agreeing  in  his  view  "that  most  springs  arise 
from  rains,  dews,  or  ponds  on  higher  grounds;  yet  possibly 
some,  that  break  out  near  the  tops  of  high,  hollow  mountains,  may 
proceed  from  the  abyss,  or  from  water  in  the  caverns  of  the 
earth,  rarefied  by  its  internal  heat,  and  raised  in  vapour,  till  the 
cold  region  near  the  tops  of  such  mountains  condenses  the 
vapour  into  water  again,  which  comes  forth  as  springs,  and 
rides  down  on  the  outside  of  the  mountains  as  it  ascended  on 
the  inside." 

The  mention  of  mountains  suggested  an  observation  that 
the  great  Appalachian  Mountains  "show  in  many  places,  even 
the  highest  parts  of  them,  strata  of  seashells ;  in  some  places 
the  marks  of  them  are  in  the  solid  rocks.  It  is  certainly  the 
wreck  of  the  world  we  live  in !  I  have  specimens  of  these  sea- 
shell  rocks,  broken  off  near  the  tops  of  the  mountains,  brought 
and  deposited  in  our  library  as  curiosities.  If  you  have  not 
seen  the  like,  I  will  send  you  a  piece."  An  observation  is  men- 
tioned of  "  the  bluff  side  or  end  of  a  mountain  which  appeared 
striped  from  top  to  bottom,"  divided  by  Nature,  as  Mr.  Walker 
had  told  him,  into  pillars,  of  which  he  would  be  glad  to  have  a 
partial  account  from  his  correspondent.  It  was  somewhere 
near  New  Haven. 

The  calming  effect  of  oil  on  waves  attracted  his  attention. 
Describing  some  of  his  experiments  to  Dr.  Brownrigg,  he  wrote 
that  one  circumstance  in  them  struck  him  with  particular  sur- 
prise. This  was  "  the  sudden,  wide,  and  forcible  spreading  of  a 
drop  of  oil  on  the  face  of  the  water,  which  I  do  not  know  that 

*  In  a  letter  to  Alexander  Small. 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  !5 

anybody  has  hitherto  considered.  When  put  on  water  it  spreads 
many  feet  around,  becoming  so  thin  as  to  produce  the  prismatic 
colours  for  a  considerable  space,  and  beyond  them  so  much 
thinner  as  to  be  invisible,  except  as  to  its  effect  in  smoothing 
the  waves  at  a  much  greater  distance.  It  seems  as  if  a  mutual 
repulsion  between  its  particles  took  place  as  soon  as  it  touched 
the  water,  and  a  repulsion  so  strong  as  to  act  on  other  bodies 
swimming  on  the  surface,  .  .  .  forcing  them  to  recede  every 
way  from  the  drop  as  from  a  centre,  leaving  a  large  clear  space. 
The  quantity  of  this  force,  and  the  distance  to  which  it  will 
operate,  I  have  not  yet  ascertained ;  but  I  think  it  is  a  curious 
inquiry,  and  I  wish  to  understand  whence  it  arises."  The  con- 
tinued study  of  this  subject  has  given  rise  to  many  curious 
observations,  and  has  thrown  considerable  light  on  the  prop- 
erty of  surface  tension  of  liquids. 

The  nature  of  inflammable  and  uninflammable  gases  was  not 
yet  understood,  although  Priestley  was  engaged,  with  his  co- 
workers,  in  Europe,  in  the  experiments  by  which  it  was  finally 
elucidated;  and  to  him  Franklin  wrote,  in  1774,  as  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  list  of  phenomena  to  be  accounted  for,  concerning  a 
river  in  New  Jersey,  that  on  stirring  the  bottom  bubbles  arose 
which  could  be  set  on  fire ;  and  he  related  an  experiment  made 
upon  this  river  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Finley,  president  of  the  college 
at  Princeton.  "The  discoveries,"  he  added,  "you  have  lately 
made  of  the  manner  in  which  inflammable  air  is  in  some  cases 
produced,  may  throw  light  on  this  experiment,  and  explain  its 
succeeding  in  some  cases  and  not  in  others."  In  another  letter 
to  Priestley,  Franklin  illustrated  the  pleasant  relations  he  en- 
joyed with  that  philosopher,  and  manifests  his  sympathy  with 
his  work  by  saying :  "  I  find  that  you  have  set  all  the  philoso- 
phers of  Europe  at  work  upon  fixed  air  ;  and  it  is  with  great 
pleasure  that  I  observe  how  high  you  stand  in  their  opinion, 
for  I  enjoy  my  friends'  fame  as  my  own." 

How  far  Franklin  and  the  world  were  still,  however,  from 
understanding  the  true  nature  of  chemical  heat-producing 
processes,  is  shown  in  a  curious  speculation  in  his  hand- 
writing found  among  the  papers  of  Cadwallader  Golden,  in 
which  the  heat  of  the  blood  and  the  cold  and  hot  fits  of  some 
fevers  were  explained  by  supposing  that  the  heat  is  a  matter  of 
friction,  not  of  the  liquid  blood,  for  liquids  have  no  friction, 
and  water  cannot  be  warmed  by  shaking  it,  but  by  friction  of 


!6  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

the  solid  parts  of  the  blood,  and  that  produced  by  the  disten- 
tion  and  contraction  of  the  arteries,  the  resultant  heat  from 
which  is  communicated  to  the  blood.  To  account  for  the  cold, 
he  supposed  the  blood  to  become  so  viscid  that  it  could  not  pass 
through  the  minute  vessels  at  the  extremities  through  which  it 
flowed  freely  when  duly  fluid ;  hence,  it  bringing  no  more  heat 
to  them,  they  grow  cold. 

Franklin's  views  concerning  the  nature  of  fire  and  of  heat 
in  general  appear  to  have  been  partly  in  harmony  with  the 
theory  of  phlogiston  then  current,  and  partly  a  vague  concep- 
tion of  the  undulatory  theory,  with  its  ethereal  medium.  They 
are  further  given  in  a  letter  written  to  Benjamin  Vaughn,  in 
1784,  in  which  he  said  that  he  had  long  been  of  the  opinion  that 
fire  exists  everywhere  as  in  the  state  of  a  subtle  fluid ;  that  too 
much  of  the  fluid  in  our  flesh  gives  us  the  sensation  we  call 
heat ;  too  little,  cold ;  its  vibrations,  light ;  that  all  solid  and 
fluid  substances  which  are  inflammable  have  been  composed  of 
it;  their  dissolution  in  returning  to  their  original  fluid  state 
we  call  fire.  This  subtle  fluid  is  attracted  by  plants  and  ani- 
mals in  their  growth,  and  consolidated ;  is  attracted  by  other 
substances,  thermometers,  etc.,  variously ;  has  a  particular 
affinity  with  water,  and  will  quit  many  other  bodies  to  attach 
itself  to  water,  and  go  off  with  it  in  evaporation. 

To  David  Rittenhouse  thus  he  wrote,  in  the  same  year,  that 
universal  space,  as  far  as  we  know  of  it,  seems  to  be  filled  with 
a  subtle  fluid,  whose  motion  or  vibration  is  called  light.  This 
fluid  may  possibly  be  the  same  with  that  which,  being  attracted 
by  and  entering  into  other  more  solid  matter,  dilates  the  sub- 
stance by  separating  the  constituent  particles,  and  so  rendering 
some  solids  fluid  and  maintaining  the  fluidity  of  others. 

Franklin's  speculations  as  to  the  origin  of  the  globe  are  given 
in  a  letter  to  the  Abbe  Sonleire,  which  was  read  as  a  paper 
before  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  September  22,  1782. 
In  it  he  supposes  that  all  the  elements  in  separable  particles 
being  originally  mixed  in  confusion  and  occupying  a  great 
space,  they  would  (as  soon  as  the  Almighty  fiat  ordained  gravity, 
or  the  mutual  attraction  of  certain  parts  and  the  mutual  repul- 
sion of  others,  to  exist)  all  move  to  their  common  centre;  and 
the  air  being  a  fluid  whose  parts  repel  each  other,  though  drawn 
to  the  common  centre  by  this  gravity,  would  be  densest  to- 
ward the  centre  and  rarer  as  more  remote ;  consequently  all 


BENJAMIN    FRANKLIN.  \j 

matters  lighter  than  the  central  parts  of  that  air,  and  immersed 
in  it,  would  recede  from  their  centre,  and  rise  till  they  arrived 
at  that  region  of  the  air  which  was  of  the  same  specific  gravity 
with  themselves,  when  they  would  rest,  while  other  matter 
mixed  with  the  lighter  air  would  descend,  and  the  two  meeting 
would  form  the  shell  of  the  first  earth,  leaving  the  upper  atmos- 
phere nearly  clear.  The  original  movement  of  the  parts  toward 
that  common  centre  would  naturally  form  a  whirl  then,  which 
would  continue  upon  the  turning  of  the  new-formed  globe  upon 
its  axis,  and  the  greatest  diameter  of  the  shell  would  be  in  its 
equator.  If  by  any  accident  afterward  the  axis  should  be 
changed,  the  dense  internal  fluid,  by  altering  its  form,  must 
burst  the  shell  and  throw  all  its  substance  into  the  confusion  in 
which  we  find  it — whereby  the  upturning  and  mingling  of  strata 
so  often  found  are  explained. 

A  paper  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Literary  and  Philosophical 
Society  of  Manchester,  England,  contains  some  meteorological 
speculations  and  conjectures.  It  supposes  a  region  high  in  the 
air  over  most  countries  where  frost  exists  continually.  The 
mass  of  the  earth  to  the  depth  perhaps  of  thirty  feet  retains  its 
heat  for  some  time.  Hence  the  first  snows  are  melted  and  the 
beginning  of  the  winter  is  slow.  The  cold  of  the  winter  of 
i783~'84  was  attributed,  in  accordance  with  this  theory,  to  the 
fogs  that  prevailed  in  the  preceding  summer,  which  prevented 
the  land  being  warmed  as  much  as  usual. 

A  letter  from  M.  de  Saussure,  the  eminent  Alpine  geologist, 
found  among  Franklin's  papers,  exhibits  Franklin  as  interested 
in  the  experiment  for  determining  the  density  of  the  earth  by 
measuring  the  attraction  of  a  mountain.  The  letter,  in  answer  to 
a  proposition  on  the  subject  from  the  Royal  Society,  mentions 
the  difficulty  of  performing  the  experiment  in  Switzerland,  on 
account  of  the  confusion  of  the  attractions  of  surrounding 
mountains,  and  suggests  that  it  be  tried  on  some  high,  isolated 
peak. 

The  alleged  finding  of  some  toads  inclosed  in  solid  stones  at 
Passy,  near  Paris,  suggested  a  curious  speculation  as  to  the  way 
in  which  they  could  have  lived  under  such  conditions.  "  It  is 
observed,"  Franklin  said,  "that  animals  who  perspire  but  little 
can  live  long  without  food,  such  as  tortoises,  whose  flesh  is 
covered  with  a  thick  shell,  and  snakes,  who  are  covered  with 
scales  which  are  of  so  close  a  substance  as  scarcely  to  admit 


1 8  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  passage  of  perspirable  matter  through  them.  Animals  that 
have  open  pores  all  over  the  surface  of  their  bodies  and  live  in 
air  which  takes  off  continually  the  perspirable  part  of  their 
substance  naturally  require  a  continual  supply  of  food  to  main- 
tain their  health.  Toads  shut  up  in  solid  stone,  which  prevents 
their  losing  anything  of  their  substance,  may  perhaps  for  that 
reason  need  no  supply,  and  being  guarded  against  all  accidents 
and  all  the  inclemencies  of  the  air  and  changes  of  seasons  are, 
it  seems,  subject  to  no  diseases,  and  become,  as  it  were,  im- 
mortal." 

The  length  of  the  time  that  dead  bodies  will  retain  infection 
after  sepulture  is  discussed  in  one  of  the  letters,*  and  cases  are 
cited  of  smallpox  caught  from  bodies  thirty  years  dead ;  fever 
from  an  Egyptian  mummy ;  cold  from  a  mummy  of  Teneriffe 
three  hundred  years  old  ;  and  fevers  mentioned  in  a  newspaper 
account  resulting  in  fifteen  funerals,  from  the  bodies  of  persons 
who  had  died  of  the  plague  one  hundred  years  before. 

The  early  experiments  with  balloons  were  observed  with 
interest  by  Franklin.  He  was  hopeful  but  not  sanguine  as  to 
the  outcome,  and  he  wrote,  in  1784,  that  the  beginning  of  the 
art  of  flying  would  be  a  new  epoch.  The  construction  and 
manner  of  filling  balloons  were  improving  daily.  Remarking 
that  some  of  the  artists  had  lately  gone  to  England,  he  sug- 
gested to  his  correspondent:  "It  will  be  well  for  you  philoso- 
phers to  obtain  from  them  what  they  know,  or  you  will  be 
behindhand,  which  in  mechanical  operations  is  unusual  for 
Englishmen."  He,  however,  discouraged  one  of  his  friends  from 
attempting  to  cross  from  France  to  England  in  a  balloon,  tell- 
ing him  that  means  had  not  yet  been  found  to  keep  a  balloon 
up  more  than  two  hours.  He  saw  the  embryo  of  a  steamboat, 
of  which  more  than  one  notice  occurs,  and  which  he  introduced 
to  the  attention  of  Dr.  Ingenhousz  in  1788,  speaking  of  it  as  a 
boat  moved  by  a  steam  engine,  that  "  rows  itself  against  the 
tide  in  a  river — and  it  is  apprehended  that  its  construction  may 
be  so  simplified  and  improved  as  to  become  generally  useful." 

Franklin  observed  that  the  same  convexity  of  glass  in  spec- 
tacles through  which  a  man  sees  clearest  and  best  at  the  proper 
distance  for  reading  is  not  the  best  for  greater  distances,  and 
for  a  long  time  used  two  pairs  of  spectacles,  which  he  changed 

*  To  Felix  Vicq  d'Agyr. 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  IC; 

according  to  the  use  he  wished  to  make  of  them.  He  finally 
hit  upon  a  more  convenient  plan  and  had  his  glasses  cut,  and 
"  half  of  each  kind  associated  in  the  same  circle,"  the  upper 
semicircle  of  one  kind  and  the  lower  of  the  other,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  wear  the  same  spectacles  constantly,  having,  as  he 
said,  "only  to  move  my  eyes  up  or  down  as  I  want  to  see  dis- 
tinctly far  or  near,  the  proper  glasses  being  always  ready." 
He  wore  these  glasses  with  great  comfort,  and  maintained  that 
he  was  even  able  to  understand  French  better  by  their  help ; 
for  when  at  table  he  could  observe  what  he  was  eating  with  one 
set  of  the  glasses  and  look  with  the  other  into  the  faces  of  the 
friends  who  spoke  to  him,  reading  the  sounds  which  his  foreign 
ears  heard  only  imperfectly,  in  the  movements  of  their  lips. 

There  is  hardly  a  subject  of  knowledge,  art,  life,  and  econ- 
omy that  is  not  touched  upon  and  illuminated  in  Franklin's 
letters.  We  find  in  them  observations  concerning  the  prevail- 
ing views  of  life  and  death  as  not  showing  sufficient  under- 
standing; a  mode  of  rendering  meat  tender  by  electricity; 
supplies  of  saltpetre  and  gunpowder  for  the  war,  with  a  wish 
that  pikes  might  be  introduced,  and  bows  and  arrows,  for  the 
use  of  which  six  reasons  are  given ;  M.  Volta's  experiments 
and  the  length  of  time  for  which  the  electric  force  may  be  kept 
in  the  Leyden  vial ;  true  science  and  its  progress ;  the  discov- 
ery of  the  great  use  of  trees  in  producing  wholesome  air;  a 
slowly  sensitive  hygrometer,  suggested  by  such  incidents  as 
the  shrinking  in  America  so  as  to  be  tight,  and  the  swelling  in 
Europe  so  as  to  afford  ample  room,  of  a  mahogany  magnet  box 
and  a  telescope  box;  the  Indian  languages;  the  antiquity  of 
the  mariner's  compass ;  the  route  by  which  the  Phoenicians 
came  to  America,  if  they  did  come ;  Lavoisier's  experiment  of 
melting  platinum  in  fine  charcoal  blown  upon  by  dephlogisti- 
cated  air;  a  comet  seen  in  Gibraltar,  concerning  which  data 
from  Herschel  are  enclosed  to  Rittenhouse;  the  spots  on  the 
sun ;  the  temperature  of  the  water  of  the  ocean  ;  the  civil  serv- 
ice, in  which  the  theory  is  declared  to  Henry  Lawrence  that 
every  place  of  honour  should  be  made  a  place  of  burden  :  "  The 
malady  [of  government]  consists  in  the  enormous  salaries, 
emoluments,  and  patronage  of  great  offices  " ;  the  logographic 
mode  of  printing  ;  thanks  to  Lavoisier  for  his  Nomenclature 
Chimique;  a  collection  of  songs  and  music  of  American  com- 
position, "  the  first  of  the  kind  that  has  appeared  here";  a 


20  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

remedy  for  moderate  deafness  by  putting  the  thumb  and  fingers 
behind  the  ear,  pressing  outward  and  enlarging  it,  as  it  were, 
by  the  hollow  of  the  hand,  which  he  had  tried  with  satisfaction  ; 
Noah  Webster's  labours  on  the  English  language,  with  a  plea 
for  its  purity  and  approval  of  a  scheme  for  a  reformed  alpha- 
bet;  an  instrument  for  taking  books  down  from  shelves;  the 
distillation  of  fresh  from  salt  water,  with  a  theory  that  the  skin 
has  imbibing  as  well  as  discharging  pores,  and  we  might  drink 
by  sitting  or  lying  in  the  water,  even  in  salt  water ;  the  discov- 
ery of  an  ancient  sepulchre,  perhaps  of  a  Scythian  king,  on  the 
frontiers  of  Russia ;  improvements  in  navigation,  of  which  he 
had  made  careful  studies  during  his  long  voyages  across  the 
ocean,  and  on  which  he  has  observations  respecting  sails,  ca- 
bles, models,  power  at  sea,  the  course  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  pre- 
cautions, and  general  reflections  on  the  subject,  relating  to 
which  a  paper  was  read  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
in  1785;  the  evil  effects  of  lead  on  the  human  system,  to 
which,  although  they  had  been  known  for  years,  not  much 
attention  seems  to  have  been  paid ;  building  houses  with  ref- 
erence to  safety  against  fire;  the  Deluge  as  a  possible  result  of 
the  internal  fluidity  of  the  earth ;  the  wonderful  discoveries 
made  by  Herschel  and  "  the  indefatigable  ingenuity  by  which 
he  has  been  enabled  to  make  them  " ;  and  on  the  merits  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  languages  for  general  instruction,  the  time 
spent  in  learning  which,  he  thought,  might  be  better  employed 
in  the  education  suitable  for  such  a  country  as  ours. 

Among  Franklin's  economical  papers  is  one  on  the  nature 
and  necessity  of  a  paper  currency,  in  which  the  sound  prin- 
ciples are  declared  that  "money  as  bullion  or  as  land  is  valu- 
able by  so  much  labour  as  it  costs  to  procure  that  bullion  or 
that  land  ;  money  as  a  currency  has  an  additional  value  by  so 
much  time  and  labour  as  it  saves  in  the  exchange  of  commod- 
ities." In  his  letter  on  customs  duties  he  squarely  avows  the 
principle  of  freedom  of  commerce,  but  apologizes  for  the  tariff 
imposed  by  the  colonies  on  the  ground  of  their  necessity  to 
raise  money  to  pay  their  debt,  and  that  by  the  most  convenient 
means.  "  We  are  not  ignorant,"  he  wrote  to  M.  de  Veilard, 
"  that  the  duties  paid  at  the  custom-house  on  the  importation 
of  foreign  goods  are  finally  reimbursed  by  the  consumer,  but 
we  impose  them  as  the  easiest  way  of  levying  a  tax  from  those 
consumers"  ;  and  to  M.  Dupont  de  Nemours,  "You  appear  to 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  21 

be  possessed  of  a  truth  which  few  governments  are  possessed 
of — that  A  must  take  some  of  B's  produce,  otherwise  B  will 
not  be  able  to  pay  for  what  he  would  take  of  A." 

The  reprint  of  Franklin's  scientific  writings  by  Sparks  in- 
cludes sixty-three  papers  on  electricity,  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  on  philosophical  subjects,  making  in  all  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty  letters,  filling  eight  hundred  and  eighty  pages. 

Franklin  was  made  a  Foreign  Associate  in  the  French  Acad- 
emy of  Sciences  in  1772,  and  was  esteemed  in  France  during 
his  residence  there  as  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  time.  In 
1782  the  Academy  of  Sciences,  Letters,  and  Arts  of  Padua 
expressed  a  desire,  through  Chevalier  Deprin,  to  add  Frank- 
lin's name  to  its  list  of  members.  Its  diploma  recited  that 
the  particular  act  of  electing  into  a  learned  society  per- 
sons who  had  been  zealous  in  promoting  the  increase  of  all 
kinds  of  knowledge  was  "  properly  but  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  original  titles  of  their  relationship.  Among  them,  Dr. 
Franklin,  having  distinguished  himself  eminently,  and  having 
rendered  himself  equally  memorable  in  natural  philosophy  and 
in  politics,  the  Academy  .  .  .  considers  it  to  be  honouring  them- 
selves when  they  number  him  among  the  twenty-four  strangers 
who,  by  the  constitution,  are  to  be  associated  into  their  body." 

In  1784  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Spanish  Royal 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  the  publication  of  a  Spanish  transla- 
tion of  some  of  his  writings  was  announced.  A  few  days  after- 
ward the  Count  de  Capomenes  wrote  him  from  Madrid  : 
"  Nature,  which  you  have  profoundly  studied,  is  indebted  to 
you  for  investigating  and  explaining  phenomena  which  wise 
men  had  not  before  been  able  to  understand ;  and  the  great 
American  philosopher,  at  the  same  time  he  discovers  these 
phenomena,  suggests  useful  methods  for  guarding  against 
their  dangers." 

The  feelings  of  his  own  countrymen  toward  him  were  equal- 
ly enthusiastic.  When  he  came  home,  in  1785,  from  his  long 
service  abroad,  the  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
addressed  him,  recognising  him  as  the  projector  of  the  institu- 
tion, and  acknowledging  that  "  not  contented  with  enriching  the 
world  with  the  most  important  discoveries  in  natural  philoso- 
phy, your  benevolence  and  liberality  of  sentiment  early  engaged 
you  to  make  provision  for  exciting  a  spirit  of  inquiry  into  the 
nicest  operations  of  Nature,  for  exalting  and  refining  the 


22  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

genius  of  America  by  the  propagation  of  useful  learning,  and 
for  qualifying  many  of  her  sons  to  make  that  illustrious  figure 
which  has  commanded  the  esteem  and  admiration  of  the  most 
polished  nations  of  Europe."  The  address  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  welcomed  him  to  his  native  country,  for 
which  he  had  done  the  most  essential  service,  and  to  the  presi- 
dential chair,  his  occupation  of  which  added  to  the  institution 
much  lustre  in  the  eyes  of  all  the  world.  "  Sir,"  the  address 
continues,  "  it  reflects  honour  on  philosophy  when  one  distin- 
guished for  his  deep  investigations  and  many  valuable  im- 
provements in  it,  is  known  to  be  equally  distinguished  for  his 
philanthropy,  patriotism,  and  liberal  attachment  to  the  rights 
of  human  nature." 

Franklin's  death  was  announced  in  the  French  National 
Assembly,  June  14,  1790,  by  Mirabeau,  who  said  :  "The  genius 
that  gave  freedom  to  America,  and  shed  torrents  of  light  upon 
Europe,  is  returned  to  the  bosom  of  the  Divinity.  The  sage 
whom  two  worlds  claim ;  the  man,  disputed  by  the  history  of 
the  sciences  and  the  history  of  empires,  holds,  most  undoubt- 
edly, an  elevated  rank  among  the  human  species."  Then, 
having  spoken  of  the  month's  mourning  recommended  by  our 
Congress,  and  suggested  that  a  similar  recognition  would  be 
proper  in  France,  the  orator  added :  "  Antiquity  would  have 
elevated  altars  to  that  mortal  who,, for  the  advantage  of  the 
human  race,  embracing  both  heaven  and  earth  in  his  vast  and 
extensive  hand,  knew  how  to  subdue  thunder  and  tyranny. 
Enlightened  and  free,  Europe  at  least  owes  its  remembrance 
and  its  regret  to  one  of  the  greatest  men  who  has  ever  served 
the  cause  of  philosophy  and  of  liberty."  His  motion  that  the 
Assembly  wear  mourning  for  three  days  was  seconded  by  La 
Rochefoucauld  and  Lafayette,  and  adopted  by  acclamation ; 
and  a  letter  of  condolence  was  addressed  to  the  Congress  of 
the  United  States.  In  1791  a  street  in  Paris  was  named 
Franklin,  in  perpetual  remembrance  of  his  long  sojourn  there. 

It  would  be  hard  to  imagine  a  more  pleasing  picture  of  the 
quiet  closing  of  an  honoured  and  useful  life  than  is  given  of 
him  by  the  Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler,  who  found  him  in  July, 
1787,  sitting  in  his  garden  surrounded  by  his  grandchjldren 
and  a  few  friends,  interested  in  a  two-headed  snake,  a  device 
for  showing  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  a  copying  press,  his 
book-handling  apparatus,  and  an  immense  volume  on  botany; 


BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.  23 

and  in  the  letters  to  friends  in  which  he  touches  upon  his 
advancing  age  and  the  prospect  of  death.  He  had  always 
avoided  controversy  in  defence  of  his  philosophical  opinions, 
trusting  that  if  they  were  right  time  and  experience  would  sup- 
port them,  and  if  wrong  they  ought  to  be  refuted  and  rejected. 
Although  he  had  a  few  enemies  in  England  and  at  home,  as  an 
American  and  because  of  what  he  had  done  for  America,  he 
was  able  to  thank  God  that  there  were  not  in  the  whole  world 
any  who  were  his  enemies  as  a  man ;  for  by  His  grace  through 
a  long  life  he  had  been  enabled  so  to  conduct  himself  that 
there  did  not  exist  a  human  being  who  could  justly  say,  "Ben 
Franklin  has  wronged  me." 


JOHN  BARTRAM, 

1699-1777,    AND 

WILLIAM   BARTRAM, 

1739-1823. 

DURING  the  century  which  preceded  the  American  Revolu- 
tion the  science  of  the  colonies,  like  their  commerce,  was  tribu- 
tary to  that  of  the  Old  World.  Fabulous  reports  in  regard  to 
the  natural  resources  of  America  had  been  brought  home  by 
European  voyagers,  and  the  cultivators  of  all  sciences  and  arts 
were  looking  to  that  vast  unexplored  region  for  products  which 
should  increase  the  knowledge  of  the  naturalist,  the  resources 
of  the  physician  and  the  agriculturist,  the  profits  of  the  mer- 
chant, and  the  enjoyment  of  the  man  of  leisure.  The  function 
of  those  colonists  who  inclined  to  natural  history  was  that  of 
explorers  and  collectors,  and  among  the  earliest  and  most  no- 
table of  these  American  collectors  were  the  subjects  of  this 
sketch. 

The  grandfather  of  the  elder  Bartram,  also  named  John, 
came  from  Derbyshire,  England,  to  Pennsylvania  in  1682.  He 
brought  his  wife,  three  sons,  and  one  daughter,  and  settled 
near  Darby,  in  Delaware  (then  Chester)  County.  The  third 
son,  William,  was  the  only  one  who  married,  his  wife  being 
Elizabeth,  daughter  of  James  Hunt.  Both  families  belonged 
to  the  Society  of  Friends.  The  children  of  William  were  John 
(the  botanist),  James,  William,  and  a  daughter  who  died  young. 
The  second  William  went  to  North  Carolina  and  settled  near 
Cape  Fear;  John  and  James  remained  in  Pennsylvania. 

The  date  of  John  Bartram's  birth  was  March  23,  1699.  But 
little  is  on  record  concerning  his  early  years.  Like  the  ma- 
jority of  boys  in  the  colonies,  he  was  brought  up  to  a  farming 
life,  and  his  education  was  only  such  as  the  country  schools  of 
the  time  afforded.  After  reaching  adult  years  he  studied  Latin 

24 


WILLIAM    BARTRAM. 


JOHN   BARTRAM   AND   WILLIAM    BARTRAM.  25 

a  little,  so  as  to  be  able  to  pick  out  the  descriptions  of  plants 
in  the  Latin  works  of  European  botanists.  In  a  sketch  of  John 
Bartram,  written  by  his  son  William,  it  is  stated  that  he  had  an 
inclination  to  the  study  of  physic  and  surgery  and  did  much 
toward  relieving  the  ailments  of  his  poor  neighbours.  In 
January,  1723,  he  married  Mary,  daughter  of  Richard  Morris, 
of  Chester  Meeting,  by  whom  he  had  two  sons — Richard,  who 


FIG.  i. — BARTRAM'S  HOUSE  IN  1887.* 

died  young;  and  Isaac,  who  lived  to  old  age.  His  wife  Mary 
died  in  1727,  and  in  September,  1729,  he  married  Ann  Menden- 
hall,  of  Concord  Meeting,  who  survived  him.  John  and  Ann 
Bartram  had  nine  children,  five  boys  and  four  girls.  Of  these 
the  third  son  was  William,  he  and  his  twin  sister,  Elizabeth, 
being  born  February  9,  1739.  The  ground  on  which  John 
Bartram  laid  out  the  first  botanic  garden  in  America  was  on 


*  The  pictures  in  the  text  are  from  photographs  furnished  by  Mr.  Thomas 
Meehan. 

3 


26  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  west  bank  of  the  Schuylkill  River,  at  Kingsessing,  near 
Gray's  Ferry  (now  within  the  limits  of  Philadelphia),  and  was 
bought  by  him  September  30,  1728.  "Here  he  built  with  his 
own  hands,"  says  William,  "  a  large  and  comfortable  house  of 
hewn  stone,  and  laid  out  a  garden  containing  about  five  acres." 
A  view  of  this  house,  which  is  still  standing,  is  given  herewith. 
The  year  of  its  erection  is  shown  by  a  stone  in  the  wall  on 
which  is  cut  "  JOHN  ?{c  ANN  BARTRAM,  1731."  Another  inscrip- 
tion on  a  stone  over  the  front  window  of  his  study  reads : 

11  'Tis  God  alone,  Almighty  Lord, 
The  Holy  One,  by  me  adored. 

"JOHN  BARTRAM,  1770." 

That  the  building  was  a  labour  of  love  is  attested  by  the  care 
bestowed  upon  the  carved  stonework  around  the  windows  and 
doors  and  the  pillar  under  the  porch.  John  Bartram  must  have 
been  a  good  stonecutter  and  mason,  for  this  is  one  of  four 
stone  houses  that  he  built  in  his  lifetime. 

Nearly  all  the  extant  information  concerning  the  lives  of 
the  two  Bartrams  has  been  embodied  in  the  Memorial  of  John 
Bartram,  by  William  Darlington,  published  in  1849.  This  vol- 
ume contains  the  sketch  of  John  Bartram  by  his  son  William, 
with  some  additions  by  the  editor,  and  over  four  hundred 
pages  of  correspondence.  About  a  fourth  of  these  letters  are 
from  his  friend  Peter  Collinson ;  the  others  are  from  eminent 
botanists  in  Europe  and  America,  and  from  Bartram  to  these 
various  correspondents.  Darlington  also  reprinted  a  sketch  of 
John  Bartram,  which  appeared  in  the  Letters  from  an  American 
Farmer,  by  J.  Hector  St.  John,  published  in  London  soon  after 
Bartram's  death.  The  "  letter  "  describing  Bartram  purports 
to  be  written  by  a  Russian  traveller,  who  is  evidently  a  myth, 
although  in  all  important  respects  the  account  represents  the 
botanist  as  he  was.  As  to  how  Bartram's  interest  in  botany 
was  aroused,  the  "  Russian  gentleman  "  has  a  very  pretty  story, 
telling  of  a  sudden  awakening  after  the  botanist  had  married; 
but  Bartram  himself  is  better  authority,  and  he  writes  to  Col- 
linson, May  i,  1764,  "I  had  always  since  ten  years  old  a  great 
inclination  to  plants,  and  knew  all  that  I  once  observed  by 
sight,  though  not  their  proper  names,  having  no  person  nor 
books  to  instruct  me." 

He  was  encouraged  to  study  systematically  by  James  Logan 


JOHN    BARTRAM   AND   WILLIAM    BARTRAM.  27 

(founder  of  the  Loganian  Library,  in  Philadelphia),  who  gave 
him  several  botanical  works.  In  order  that  his  explorations, 
begun  at  his  own  expense,  might  be  extended,  Bartram's  friends 
prompted  him  to  seek  the  patronage  of  some  wealthy  and  in- 
fluential person  in  the  mother  country.  Accordingly,  a  quan- 
tity of  his  specimens  and  a  record  of  some  of  his  observations 
were  sent  to  Peter  Collinson,  a  Quaker  merchant  in  England, 
who  was  greatly  interested  in  horticulture.  Bartram's  consign- 
ment secured  his  interest,  and  led  to  a  correspondence,  which 
lasted  nearly  fifty  years.  The  first  letter  in  Darlington's  col- 
lection is  from  Collinson,  under  the  date  January  20,  i734-'35, 
and  refers  to  letters  from  Bartram  of  the  preceding  November; 
hence  this  correspondence  probably  began  when  Bartram  was 
about  thirty-five  years  of  age.  In  his  early  letters  Collinson 
makes  many  inquiries  about  American  plants  and  requests  for 
specimens.  He  sends  Bartram  seeds,  roots,  cuttings  of  trees, 
vegetables,  and  flowering  plants  cultivated  in  England,  pack- 
ages of  paper  in  which  to  preserve  specimens,  and  gives  him 
directions  for  collecting  and  drying  plants.  From  time  to  time 
he  sends  presents  of  cloth  and  other  articles  for  the  use  of  the 
botanist  or  his  family.  For  Bartram's  "  improvement  in  the 
knowledge  of  plants  "he  early  offers,  if  duplicate  collections 
are  sent,  to  "get  them  named  by  our  most  knowing  botanists, 
and  then  return  them  again,  which  will  improve  thee  more  than 
books."  In  this  way  the  learning  of  Dillenius,  Gronovius,  and 
other  eminent  men  was  brought  to  the  aid  of  the  humble  colo- 
nist. Collinson  obtained  for  Bartram  many  orders  for  seeds 
and  roots  of  American  plants,  and  early  secured  for  him  the 
patronage  of  Lord  Petre,  whose  gardens  and  hothouses  were 
probably  the  most  extensive  in  the  kingdom.  This  noble  ama- 
teur ordered  quantities  of  seeds  from  time  to  time,  and  when 
Bartram  asked  for  a  yearly  allowance  to  enable  him  to  extend 
his  explorations,  Lord  Petre  agreed  to  contribute  ten  guineas 
toward  it.  As  much  more  was  obtained  from  the  Duke  of 
Richmond  and  Philip  Miller,  and  the  twenty  guineas  were  paid 
each  year  till  1742,  when  Lord  Petre  died.  The  first  expedi- 
tion that  Bartram  made  with  this  assistance  was  an  exploration 
of  the  Schuylkill  River.  He  transmitted  his  journal  of  the  trip 
and  a  map  of  the  river  to  his  patrons,  and  with  both  of  these 
Collinson  reported  Lord  Petre  to  be  much  pleased. 

Besides  plants,  Collinson  asks  Bartram  at  various  times  to 


28  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

send  insects,  birds,  and  their  eggs  and  nests,  terrapin  and 
other  turtles,  snakes,  shells,  wasps'  and  hornets'  nests,  and 
fossils,  which  last  were  then  regarded  as  "  evidences  of  the 
Deluge."  "  My  inclination  and  fondness  to  natural  produc- 
tions of  all  kinds,"  he  writes,  "  is  agreeable  to  the  old  proverb, 
4 Like  the  parsons  barn — refuses  nothing'"  During  the  second 
year  of  his  allowance  Bartram  complains  that  it  does  not  recom- 
pense him  for  his  labours,  and  he  also  finds  fault  with  Collin- 
son  for  giving  him  seeds  and  cuttings  that  he  has  already,  and 
for  not  having  answered  some  of  his  letters.  Collinson,  in  a 
businesslike  reply,  shows  that  Bartram's  complaints  are  due  to 
his  ignorance  of  commercial  affairs,  the  difficulty  of  transat- 
lantic communication,  and  to  his  exceeding  the  commissions  of 
his  patrons — whereupon  the  botanist  promptly  apologizes. 

In  1738  Bartram  made  a  journey  of  five  weeks  through 
Maryland  and  Virginia  to  Williamsburg,  then  up  the  James 
River,  and  over  the  Blue  Ridge  Mountains,  travelling  in  all 
about  eleven  hundred  miles.  Most  of  his  expeditions  were 
made  without  any  scientific  companion.  "  Our  Americans,"  he 
writes  to  a  correspondent,  "  have  very  little  taste  for  these 
amusements.  I  can't  find  one  that  will  bear  the  fatigue  to 
accompany  me  in  my  peregrinations." 

In  an  undated  letter,  written  probably  in  1739,  to  Colonel 
Byrd,  of  Virginia,  Bartram  reports  that  he  had  been  making 
"  microscopical  observations  upon  the  male  and  female  parts 
in  vegetables."  He  had  also  made,  he  says,  "  several  successful 
experiments  of  joining  several  species  of  the  same  genus, 
whereby  I  have  obtained  curious  mixed  colours  in  flowers,  never 
known  before."  To  this  he  adds :  "  I  hope  by  these  practical 
observations  to  open  a  gate  into  a  very  large  field  of  experi- 
mental knowledge,  which,  if  judiciously  improved,  may  be  a 
considerable  addition  to  the  beauty  of  the  florist's  garden." 
It  was  in  this  "  field  of  experimental  knowledge  " — namely, 
cross  fertilization — that  Darwin  afterward  won  a  share  of  his 
fame.  Bartram  evidently  discussed  this  subject  with  Collinson, 
for  the  latter  writes  in  1742  :  "That  some  variegations  may  be 
occasioned  by  insects  is  certain  ;  but  then  these  are  only  annual, 
and  cease  with  the  year."  Permanent  variegations,  he  says, 
are  produced  by  budding — a  sort  of  inoculation. 

That  Bartram  had  a  hostility  to  superstition,  tempered  with 
much  considerateness  for  persons,  is  shown  by  a  letter  in  which 


JOHN  BARTRAM  AND  WILLIAM  BARTRAM.      29 

he  tells  of  a  visit  to  Dr.  Witt,  of  Germantown,  another  of  Col- 
linson's  correspondents.  He  says :  "  When  we  are  upon  the 
topic  of  astrology,  magic,  and  mystic  divinity,  I  am  apt  to  be  a 
little  troublesome,  by  inquiring  into  the  foundation  and  reasona- 
bleness of  these  notions — which,  thee  knows,  will  not  bear  to  be 
searched  and  examined  into :  though  I  handle  these  fancies 
with  more  tenderness  with  him  than  I  should  with  many  others 
that  are  so  superstitiously  inclined." 

One  of  the  botanists  whom  Collinson  had  enlisted  in  identi- 
fying Bartram's  specimens  was  Prof.  Dillenius,  of  Oxford,  and 
in  1740  Collinson  writes  for  some  mosses  for  him,  saying,  "  He 
defers  completing  his  work  till  he  sees  what  comes  from  thee, 
Clayton,  and  Dr.  Mitchell."  In  the  same  year  a  list  of  speci- 
mens which  had  been  named  by  Dr.  J.  F.  Gronovius,  of  Leyden, 
was  returned,  and  contained  this  entry  :  "  Cortustz  sive  Verbasci, 
Fl.  Virg.,  pp.  74,  75.  This  being  a  new  genus,  may  be  called 
BARTRAMIA."  The  name  Bartramia  is  now  borne  by  a  different 
plant — a  moss  growing  in  the  Berkshire  Hills  of  Massachusetts. 

Bartram's  correspondence  with  Gronovius  began  about  1743, 
and  extends  over  a  dozen  years  or  more.  Gronovius  writes 
at  length,  very  appreciatively,  and  makes  many  requests.  He 
sends  his  books  as  they  appear,  and  before  the  publication  of 
his  Index  Lapidse,  sends  a  transcript  of  the  passage,  in  Latin, 
in  which  he  is  to  give  Bartram  credit  for  his  finds  of  fossils. 

Among  the  European  scientists  whom  Collinson  made  ac- 
quainted with  Bartram's  work  was  Sir  Hans  Sloane,  physician 
and  naturalist,  who  succeeded  Newton  as  President  of  the 
Royal  Society.  At  his  request  Bartram  sends  him,  in  1741, 
some  "  petrified  representations  of  seashells."  The  next  year 
Sloane  sends  to  Bartram  a  silver  cup  inscribed : 

"  The  gift  of  Sr  Hans  Sloane,  Bart. 
To  his  Frd  John  Bartram. 
Anno  1742." 

A  figure  of  this  cup  is  given  by  Darlington.  Sloane  also 
sent  Bartram  his  Natural  History  of  Jamaica,  in  two  ponderous 
folio  volumes. 

About  this  time  a  correspondence  began  between  Bartram 
and  Dr.  John  Fothergill,  a  wealthy  physician  and  naturalist, 
who,  like  Sloane,  had  first  received  some  of  Bartram's  speci- 
mens from  Collinson.  Dr.  Fothergill  wishes  to  know  what 


30  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

mineral  springs  there  are  in  America,  and  Bartram  sends  him 
what  information  he  has  and  can  get  from  others. 

Bartram  also  exchanged  letters  with  Philip  Miller,  author  of 
the  Gardener's  Dictionary;  with  George  Edwards,  who  in  1766 
sends  his  book,  containing  descriptions  of  birds  that  the  Penn- 
sylvanian  had  sent  him;  with  Prof.  John  Hope,  of  Edinburgh; 
and  with  the  ablest  observers  of  Nature  in  the  colonies,  among 
whom  were  Dr.  John  Mitchell,  Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  John  Clayton, 
Cadwallader  Golden,  and  Dr.  Alexander  Garden. 

In  1744  he  writes,  "Dr.  Gronovius  hath  sent  me  his  Index 
Lapidae,  and  Linnaeus  the  second  edition  of  his  Characteres. 
Plantarum,  with  a  very  loving  letter  desiring  my  correspond- 
ence, and  to  furnish  him  with  some  natural  curiosities  of  our 
country."  The  same  year  he  sends  to  England  his  Journal  of 
the  Five  Nations  and  the  Lake  Ontario,  describing  a  journey 
he  had  made  the  preceding  fall.  It  contained  an  account  of 
the  "soil,  productions,  mountains,  and  lakes  "  of  those  parts  of 
Pennsylvania  and  New  York  through  which  the  route  lay ;  and 
gave  the  proceedings  of  a  great  assembly  of  Indian  chiefs  held 
to  treat  with  the  agent  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania,  whom 
Bartram  accompanied.  This  journal  was  afterward  published 
in  London. 

The  visit  of  Peter  Kalm  to  America  took  place  in  1748  to 
1751.  He  travelled  through  Canada,  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
and  adjoining  provinces;  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Gray's 
Ferry  botanist,  and  obtained  much  assistance  from  him.  It 
has  been  alleged  that  Kalm  took  to  himself  the  credit  of  some 
discoveries  which  rightfully  belonged  to  Bartram.  This  would 
not  be  suspected  from  reading  Kalm's  Travels,  in  which  he 
gives  Bartram  a  page  and  a  half  of  hearty  commendation,  say- 
ing among  other  things:  "We  owe  to  him  the  knowledge  of 
many  scarce  plants,  which  he  first  found,  and  which  were  never 
known  before.  ...  I  likewise  owe  him  many  things,  for  he 
possessed  that  great  quality  of  communicating  everything  he 
knew.  I  shall,  therefore,  in  the  sequel  frequently  mention  this 
gentleman."  On  nearly  every  one  of  the  next  twenty  pages 
credit  is  given  to  Bartram  for  information. 

In  1751  Benjamin  Franklin  and  D.  Hall  published  at  Phila- 
delphia an  American  edition  of  Dr.  Thomas  Short's  Medicina 
Britannica,  "  with  a  Preface  by  Mr.  John  Bartram,  Botanist,  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  his  Notes  throughout  the  work ;  .  .  .  and 


JOHN    BARTRAM   AND   WILLIAM    BARTRAM.  3! 

an  Appendix,  containing  a  description  of  a  number  of  Plants 
peculiar  to  America,  their  uses,  virtues,  etc."     The  notes  told 


FIG.  2. — CYPRESS  TREE  IN  BARTRAM  PARK. 
Circumference  at  base,  27  feet  6  inches. 

where  the  plants  were  found  in  America,  and  how  they  differed 
from  the  English  varieties. 

John  Bartram's  son  William  begins  to  figure  in  his  father's 
correspondence  when  about  fifteen  years  old.  At  that  time 
Bartram  sent  some  of  William's  drawings  of  natural  objects  to 


32  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

Collinson,  and  took  him  on  a  trip  to  the  Catskills.  In  1755 
Bartram  writes:  "  I  design  to  set  Billy  to  draw  all  our  turtles 
with  remarks,  as  he  has  time,  which  is  only  on  Seventh  days  in 
the  afternoon,  and  First-day  mornings;  for  he  is  constantly 
kept  to  school  to  learn  Latin  and  French."  This  attention  to 
the  languages  indicates  that  Bartram  was  determined  that  his 
son  should  not  suffer  from  the  lack  of  knowledge  by  which  his 
own  reading  of  works  on  natural  history  had  been  limited. 
William  was  then  attending  the  old  college  in  Philadelphia. 

The  same  passage  shows  also  that  Bartram's  ideas  about 
Sunday  occupations  was  somewhat  unusual  for  that  generation, 
and  in  fact  it  is  stated  that  he  was  excommunicated  by  his 
brother  Quakers  about  this  time  for  his  independent  religious 
views.  The  question  of  an  occupation  for  William  now  came 
up,  and  in  the  letter  just  quoted  his  father  asks  Collinson's 
advice  in  the  matter.  "My  son  William,"  he  writes,  "is  just 
turned  of  sixteen.  It  is  now  time  to  propose  some  way  for 
him  to  get  his  living  by.  1  don't  want  him  to  be  what  is  com- 
monly called  a  gentleman.  I  want  to  put  him  to  some  busi- 
ness by  which  he  may,  with  care  and  industry,  get  a  temperate, 
reasonable  living.  I  am  afraid  that  botany  and  drawing  will 
not  afford  him  one,  and  hard  labour  don't  agree  with  him.  I 
have  designed  several  years  to  put  him  to  a  doctor,  to  learn 
physic  and  surgery ;  but  that  will  take  him  from  his  drawing, 
which  he  takes  particular  delight  in.  Pray,  my  dear  friend 
Peter,  let  me  have  thy  opinion  about  it."  Franklin  offered  to 
teach  William  the  printing  trade,  but  Bartram  was  not  quite 
satisfied  with  the  prospects  for  printers  in  Pennsylvania,  and 
Franklin  then  suggested  engraving.  But  William  became 
neither  printer  nor  engraver.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  was 
placed  with  a  Philadelphia  merchant,  Mr.  Child,  where  he  re- 
mained about  four  years. 

Bartram's  science  was  largely  practical.  He  wrote  to  Dr. 
Alexander  Garden,  of  Charleston,  in  1755,  suggesting  a  series 
of  borings  on  a  large  scale,  to  search  for  valuable  mineral 
products.  He  gives  as  another  reason  the  satisfaction  to  be 
derived  from  knowing  the  composition  of  the  earth,  and  adds, 
"  By  this  method  we  may  compose  a  curious  subterranean 
map."  "  This  scheme  of  John  Bartram's,"  says  Darlington — 
"  if  original  with  him — would  indicate  that  he  had  formed  a 
pretty  good  notion  of  the  nature  and  importance  of  a  geo- 


JOHN    BARTRAM    AND   WILLIAM    BARTRAM.  33 

logical  survey  and  map,  more  than  half  a  century  before 
such  undertakings  were  attempted  in  our  country,  or  even 
thought  of  by  those  whose  province  it  was  to  authorize  them." 

Bartram  was  evidently  much  interested  in  geological  sub- 
jects; thus,  in  1756  he  writes,  "My  dear  worthy  friend,  thee 
can't  bang  me  out  of  the  notion  that  limestone  and  marble 
were  originally  mud,  impregnated  by  a  marine  salt,  which  I 
take  to  be  the  original  of  all  our  terrestrial  soils." 

In  1760  he  makes  a  trip  through  the  Carolinas,  his  Journal 
of  which  he  wrote  out  and  sent  to  England.  The  following 
summer,  William,  then  twenty-two  years  old,  went  to  North 
Carolina  and  set  up  as  a  trader  at  Cape  Fear,  where  his  uncle 
William  had  settled  when  a  young  man.  That  year  John  Bar- 
tram  makes  a  journey  to  Pittsburg  and  some  way  down  the 
Ohio  River,  keeping  a  journal,  as  usual,  which  is  sent  to  his 
English  friends.  Nearly  all  of  these  trips  were  made  in 
autumn,  so  as  to  get  ripe  seeds  of  desirable  trees  and  plants. 

Bartram  had  too  tender  a  feeling  toward  animal  life  to  be 
much  of  a  zoologist.  He  says  on  this  score :  "  As  for  the  ani- 
mals and  insects,  it  is  very  few  that  I  touch  of  choice,  and  most 
with  uneasiness.  Neither  can  I  behold  any  of  them,  that  have 
not  done  me  a  manifest  injury,  in  their  agonizing  mortal  pains 
without  pity.  I  also  am  of  opinion  that  the  creatures  com- 
monly called  brutes  possess  higher  qualifications,  and  more 
exalted  ideas,  than  our  traditional  mystery-mongers  are  willing 
to  allow  them."  His  ideas  concerning  animal  psychology  were 
thus  clearly  in  advance  of  his  time. 

The  war  with  France,  known  to  Americans  as  the  French 
and  Indian  War,  resulted  in  extending  the  British  possessions 
in  America  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi  River.  Immediately 
a  desire  was  expressed  in  England  for  a  thorough  exploration 
of  this  great  accession  of  territory.  Bartram  writes  in  1763 
that  this  could  not  be  made  without  great  danger  from  the 
Indians.  His  own  expeditions  had  been  very  short  during  the 
hostilities.  The  late  war  had  shown  the  colonists  what  atroci- 
ties the  savages  were  capable  of,  and  the  prevailing  feelings 
toward  the  red  men  had  become  dread  and  hatred.  "  Many 
years  past  in  our  most  peaceable  times,"  writes  Bartram,  "  far 
beyond  the  mountains,  as  I  was  walking  in  a  path  with  an 
Indian  guide,  hired  for  two  dollars,  an  Indian  man  met  me  and 
pulled  off  my  hat  in  a  great  passion,  and  chawed  it  all  round — 


34  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

I  suppose  to  show  me  that  they  would  eat  me  if  I  came  in  that 
country  again."  In  two  other  letters  he  declares  that  the  only 
way  to  make  peace  with  the  Indians  "is  to  bang  them  stoutly." 
The  question  arises  whether  the  combative  disposition  of  the 
botanist  thus  revealed  might  not  have  been  one  of  the  reasons 
for  his  exclusion  from  the  Society  of  Friends. 

In  1764  Bartram  sends  to  England  his  Journal  to  Carolina 
and  New  River.  In  this  year,  one  Young,  of  Pennsylvania, 
managed  to  gain  the  favour  of  the  new  king,  George  III,  by 
sending  him  some  American  plants,  and  obtained  sudden  pre- 
ferment. It  was  said  that  all  the  plants  had  been  sent  to 
England  before — many  of  them  by  Bartram.  The  friends  of 
our  botanist,  feeling  that  he  was  much  more  deserving  of  such 
favour,  urged  him  to  send  some  specimens  to  the  king,  which 
he  does  through  Collinson,  desiring  that  he  may  be  given  a 
commission  for  botanical  exploration  in  the  Floridas.  April  9, 
1765,  Collinson  writes,  "  My  repeated  solicitations  have  not 
been  in  vain,"  and  reports  that  the  king  has  appointed  Bartram 
his  botanist  for  the  Floridas,  with  a  salary  of  fifty  pounds  a 
year.  This  appointment  continued  till  the  death  of  the 
botanist,  twelve  years  after.  Bartram  accordingly  made  an 
expedition  in  the  South  the  next  fall.  He  was  then  sixty-six 
years  old  ;  and,  although  his  eagerness  for  exploring  was  un- 
diminished,  he  felt  the  need  of  a  companion  on  this  trip,  and  got 
William  tc  go  with  him,  the  latter  closing  out  his  not  very  suc- 
cessful business  at  Cape  Fear  in  order  to  do  so.  In  his  sketch 
of  his  father,  William  states  that  he  had  been  ordered  to  search 
for  the  sources  of  the  river  San  Juan  (St.  John's),  and  that  he 
ascended  the  river  its  whole  length,  nearly  four  hundred  miles, 
by  one  bank,  and  descended  by  the  other.  He  explored  and 
made  a  survey  of  both  the  main  stream  and  its  branches  and 
connected  lakes,  and  made  a  draught  showing  widths,  depths, 
and  distances.  He  also  noted  the  lay  of  the  land,  quality  of 
the  soil,  the  vegetable  and  animal  productions,  etc.  His  report 
was  approved  by  the  governor  of  the  province,  and  was  sent 
to  the  Board  of  Trade  and  Plantations  in  England,  by  which  it 
was  ordered  published  "for  the  benefit  of  the  new  colony." 
Bartram  collected  a  fine  lot  of  plants,  fossils,  and  other  objects 
of  interest  on  this  trip,  which  were  forwarded  to  the  king,  who 
was  reported  to  be  much  pleased  with  them.  His  journal  is 
still  extant,  in  a  volume  with  an  Account  of  East  Florida,  by 


JOHN    BARTRAM   AND    WILLIAM   BARTRAM.  35 

William  Stork,  published  in  England.  It  is  evident  from  this 
production  that  the  botanist  was  not  a  ready  writer.  His  ob- 
servations are  minute  and  sagacious,  and  his  language  is 
simple,  but  his  sentences  are  loosely  strung  out,  and  the  record 
is  the  barest  statement  of  facts.  His  Journal  to  the  Five 
Nations,  however,  is  much  more  readable. 

William  seems  to  have  been  much  taken  with  Florida,  and 
accordingly  his  father  helped  to  establish  him  as  an  indigo- 
planter  on  the  St.  John's  River.  After  about  a  year  of  disas- 
trous experience  he  returned  to  his  father's  home  and  went  to 
work  on  a  farm  in  the  vicinity.  Collinson  had  been  watching 
for  an  opening  for  William  in  England,  but  so  far  nothing  had 
come  of  it.  The  next  year  he  writes  that  the  Duchess  of  Port- 
land, a  "  great  virtuoso  in  shells  and  all  marine  productions," 
had  just  dined  at  his  house,  and,  having  seen  William's  draw- 
ings, "  she  desires  to  bestow  twenty  guineas  on  his  perform- 
ances for  a  trial"  The  kind  of  objects  she  wants  drawn  are 
told.  The  same  month,  July  18,  1768,  Collinson  writes  to 
William  that  he  had  also  secured  an  order  from  Dr.  Fothergill 
for  drawings  of  shells,  turtles,  terrapin,  etc.  This  was  prob- 
ably the  last  letter  of  Collinson  to  the  Bartrams,  as  he  died  on 
the  nth  of  the  following  month.  During  his  long  friendship 
with  John  Bartram  the  two  men  had  never  met. 

William  now  began  to  send  drawings  and  descriptions  to 
Dr.  Fothergill  from  time  to  time.  In  1772  he  began  explora- 
tions in  the  Floridas,  Carolina,  and  Georgia,  the  expense  of 
which  for  nearly  five  years  was  borne  by  Dr.  Fothergill,  and  to 
him  William's  collections  and  drawings  were  turned  over. 
William  made  many  contributions  to  the  natural  history  of  the 
country  through  which  he  travelled,  and  in  1791  published  his 
Travels  through  North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  East  and 
West  Florida,  together  with  an  account  of  the  Creek,  Cherokee, 
Choctaw,  and  other  tribes  of  Indians  which  he  visited.  His 
opinion  of  the  red  men  is  much  more  favourable  than  that  of 
his  father.  The  volume  contains  many  engravings  of  plants 
and  birds  from  the  author's  own  drawings.  Of  this  book  Cole- 
ridge said :  "  The  latest  book  of  travels  I  know  written  in  the 
spirit  of  the  old  travellers  is  Bartram's  account  of  his  tour  in 
the  Floridas.  It  is  a  work  of  high  merit  every  way." 

Among  the  influential  friends  of  the  elder  Bartram  was 
Benjamin  Franklin.  While  in  England  Franklin  writes  to  him 


36  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

and  sends  him  seeds  of  garden  vegetables  at  various  times ; 
and  when  the  Revolution  had  stopped  Bartram's  sending  seeds 
to  England  for  sale,  Franklin  offers  to  sell  them  for  him  in 
France. 

Among  the  testimonials  to  his  botanical  achievements  that 
Bartram  received  was  a  gold  medal,  weighing  487  grains,  from 
a  society  in  Edinburgh,  founded  in  1764,  for  obtaining  seeds 
of  useful  trees  and  shrubs  from  other  countries.  This  medal 
is  inscribed,  "  To  Mr.  John  Bartram,  from  a  Society  of  Gentle- 
men at  Edinburgh,  1772";  and  on  the  reverse,  "  MERENTI,"  in 
a  wreath.  The  medal  is  figured  in  Darlington's  Memorials, 
and  when  that  book  was  published  was  in  the  possession  of  a 
Mrs.  Jones,  a  descendant  of  the  botanist.  April  26,  1769,  the 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  of  Stockholm,  on  the  proposal  of 
Professor  Bergius,  elected  Bartram  to  membership.  Another 
honour  that  he  received  from  the  same  country  was  a  letter 
from  Queen  Ulrica,  and  with  this  may  be  mentioned  the  opinion 
passed  upon  him  by  Linnaeus,  who  called  Bartram  the  greatest 
natural  botanist  in  the  world.  Bartram  was  one  of  the  original 
members  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  con- 
tributed many  papers  to  its  Transactions. 

The  closing  years  of  John  Bartram's  life  were  the  opening 
years  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  living  when  independence 
'Was  declared  in  the  neighbouring  city  of  Philadelphia,  but  died 
the  following  year,  September  22,  1777,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
eight.  A  granddaughter,  who  remembered  him  distinctly, 
has  stated  that  he  was  exceedingly  agitated  by  the  approach 
of  the  British  army  after  the  battle  of  Brandywine,  and  that 
his  days  were  probably  shortened  in  consequence.  The  royal 
troops  had  been  ravaging  the  country,  and  he  was  apprehen- 
sive lest  they  should  lay  waste  his  darling  garden. 

His  son  William  describes  him  as  "  a  man  of  modest  and 
gentle  manners,  frank,  cheerful,  and  of  great  good  nature;  a 
lover  of  justice,  truth,  and  charity.  .  .  .  During  the  whole 
course  of  his  life  there  was  not  a  single  instance  of  his  engag- 
ing in  a  litigious  contest  with  any  of  his  neighbours  or  others. 
He  zealously  testified  against  slavery,  and,  that  his  philan- 
thropic precepts  on  this  subject  might  have  their  due  weight 
and  force,  he  gave  liberty  to  a  most  valuable  male  slave,  then 
in  the  prime  of  his  life,  who  had  been  bred  up  in  the  family 
almost  from  infancy."  He  was  of  an  active  temperament,  and 


JOHN   BARTRAM    AND   WILLIAM    BARTRAM.  37 

often  expressed  the  wish  that  he  might  not  live  to  be  helpless. 
This  desire  was  gratified,  for  he  died  after  only  a  short  illness. 

No  picture  of  him  is  known  to  exist.  In  regard  to  his  phys- 
ical appearance  William  states  :  "  His  stature  was  rather  above 
the  middle  size,  and  upright.  His  visage  was  long,  and  his 
countenance  expressive  of  a  degree  of  dignity  with  a  happy 
mixture  of  animation  and  sensibility."  Concerning  Bartram's 
ability  as  a  naturalist  there  are  enthusiastic  opinions  extant 
in  letters  by  Franklin,  Collinson,  Golden,  and  others  well  quali- 
fied to  judge. 

William  Bartram,  after  the  death  of  his  father,  continued  in 
the  pursuit  of  natural  history.  The  Botanic  Garden  was  in- 
herited by  his  brother  John,  who  took  William  into  a  partner- 
ship which  lasted  many  years.  After  this  arrangement  termi- 
nated, William  continued  to  assist  his  brother  till  the  death 
of  the  latter,  in  1812.  The  garden  then  descended  to  John's 
daughter  Anne,  the  wife  of  Colonel  Robert  Carr,  in  whose 
family  William  resided  from  that  time  until  his  death.  He 
was  never  married.  In  1782  William  Bartram  was  elected 
Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  but 
declined  the  position  on  account  of  ill  health.  He  became  a 
member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1786,  and 
was  elected  to  other  learned  societies  in  both  Europe  and 
America.  He  was  an  ingenious  mechanic,  and,  as  before  inti- 
mated, was  skilful  in  drawing  and  painting.  Most  of  the  illus- 
trations in  Prof.  Barton's  Elements  of  Botany  were  from 
his  drawings.  His  botanical  labours  brought  to  light  many 
interesting  plants  not  previously  known.  But  this  was  not 
his  only  field.  He  made  the  most  complete  and  correct  list  of 
American  birds  before  Wilson's  Ornithology,  and,  in  fact,  his 
encouragement  and  assistance  were  largely  instrumental  in 
making  that  work  possible.  Among  William  Bartram's  scien- 
tific correspondents  were  the  Rev.  Henry  Muhlenberg  and  F. 
A.  Michaux,  to  whom  he  furnished  seeds.  A  manuscript  diary 
kept  by  him,  which  was  presented  to  the  Academy  of  Natu- 
ral Sciences  of  Philadelphia  in  1885,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Meehan, 
is  rich  in  ornithological,  botanical,  and  meteorological  notes, 
also  records  of  personal  experiences,  all  of  which  are  of  great 
interest.  His  death  occurred  suddenly  from  the  rupture  of  a 
blood  vessel  in  the  lungs,  July  22,  1823,  in  the  eighty-fifth  year 
of  his  age.  Besides  his  Travels,  William  Bartram  was  the 


38  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

author  of  Anecdotes  of  a  Cro**T  md  Description  of  Certhia.  In 
1789  he  wrote  Observatio!' '  on  the  Creek  and  Cherokee  In- 
dians, which  was  published  in  1851,  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
American  Ethnological  Society,  Vol.  III.  Our  portrait  of  him 
is  from  an  engraving  which  formed  the  frontispiece  to  the  sec- 
ond volume  of  the  Cabinet  of  Natural  History  and  American 
Rural  Sports,  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1832  by  J.  &  T. 
Dougherty.  Concerning  its  authenticity  the  statement  is  made 
in  the  accompanying  biographical  sketch  that  "  the  portrait  is  a 


FIG.  3.— NETHER  STONE  OF  JOHN  BARTRAM'S  CIDER  MILL. 

correct  likeness  of  Mr.  Bartram,  and  the  only  engraved  one 
ever  given  to  the  American  public."  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  date  of  the  publication  of  this  portrait  was  only  nine  years 
after  William  Bartram's  death. 

In  the  old  stone  house  the  great  fireplace  has  been  filled 
up,  although  but  few  other  changes  have  been  made.  The 
building  is  full  of  curious  turns  and  cubby-holes.  Connected 
with  a  cupboard  in  the  sitting  room  is  a  recess  running  behind 
the  chimney,  which  furnished  a  safe  depository  in  winter  for 
specimens  that  frost  could  injure.  Back  of  the  sitting  room, 
in  the  wing  of  the  building,  is  an  apartment  with  large  windows 
looking  toward  the  south,  which  was  the  botanist's  conserva- 


JOHN    BARTRAM   AND   WILLIAM   BARTRAM.  39 

tory.  Here  were  reared  such  ^:--nts  as  could  not  stand  a  Penn- 
sylvania winter — gathered  in  Fie  :&la  or  the  Carolinas,  or  sent 
from  Europe.  In  the  grounds  close  to  the  river  is  a  great  im- 
bedded rock,  hewn  flat,  in  which  is  cut  a  wide,  deep  groove. 
This  is  the  nether  stone  of  John  Bartram's  cider  mill.  The 
Botanic  Garden  remained  in  the  possession  of  Colonel  Carr  till 
about  1850,  when  it  became  the  property  of  Mr.  A.  M.  East- 
wick.  This  gentleman  had  derived  much  pleasure  from  visit- 
ing it  as  a  boy,  and  was  resolved  to  preserve  it  without  the 
sacrifice  of  a  tree  or  a  shrub.  In  1853  a  Handbook  of  Or- 
namental Trees,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Meehan,  was  published,  the 
main  purpose  of  which,  as  stated  in  its  preface,  was  to  de- 
scribe the  trees  then  in  the  Bartram  garden.  After  Mr.  East- 
wick's  death,  the  fate  of  the  garden  was  for  some  time  dubious. 
His  executors  saw  no  duty  but  to  get  as  much  money  out  of 
the  estate  as  possible.  About  1880  Prof.  C.  S.  Sargent,  of 
Harvard  University,  obtained  the  promise  of  a  private  sub- 
scription to  buy  the  old  garden,  and  a  price  was  agreed  upon, 
but  the  executors  withdrew  from  the  agreement.  In  1882  Mr. 
Thomas  Meehan  became  a  member  of  the  Common  Council  of 
Philadelphia  and  at  once  introduced  a  scheme  for  small  parks 
for  the  city,  in  which  the  Bartram  place  was  included.  Re- 
peated re-elections  enabled  him  to  follow  the  matter  up,  and 
finally,  in  the  spring  of  1891,  the  city  took  possession  of  the 
property,  and  put  a  superintendent  in  charge  of  it.  The 
great  gale  of  September,  1875,  and  some  fifteen  years  of 
neglect  had  had  their  effect  among  the  trees,  but  many  planted 
by  the  botanist's  own  hands  yet  remain.  It  should  be  a  source 
of  gratification  to  all  cuitivators  of  science  that  this  relic  of 
the  beginnings  of  botany  in  America  is  now  assured  of  preser- 
vation. 


JOHN    WINTHROP. 

1714-1779. 

THE  name  of  Winthrop  has  always  been  an  honoured  one 
in  New  England,  in  the  domain  of  public  affairs,  and  one  mem- 
ber of  the  family,  at  least,  has  placed  it  high  on  the  rolls  of 
science.  Several  of  the  Winthrops  of  colonial  times  were 
cultivators  of  the  sciences,  but  none  employed  such  high  talents 
so  exclusively  in  this  field  of  activity  as  did  the  subject  of  the 
present  sketch. 

John  Winthrop,  one  of  many  Johns  in  that  family,  was 
born  in  Boston,  December  8,  1714.  His  family  history  is  a 
part  of  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  His  father,  Judge 
Adam  Winthrop,  was  a  great-grandson  of  the  first  Governor  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony ;  a  graduate  of  Harvard ;  chief 
justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas;  colonel  of  the  Boston 
regiment;  and  a  lay  member  of  the  Provincial  Council.  John 
Winthrop  was  graduated  from  Harvard  College  in  1732.  Six 
years  later,  being  then  twenty-four  years  old,  he  was  elected 
to  the  Hollis  professorship  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philos- 
ophy by  the  corporation  of  the  college.  The  choice  being 
submitted  to  the  overseers  of  the  college,  that  body  appointed 
a  committee  "  to  examine  the  professor-elect  as  to  his  knowl- 
edge of  the  mathematics,"  which  soon  reported  favourably. 
Certain  of  the  overseers,  who  were  especially  anxious  to  pro- 
tect the  college  from  any  possible  contamination  of  heresy  or 
schism,  tried  to  have  a  committee  appointed  "  to  examine  Mr. 
Winthrop  about  his  principles  of  religion."  This  matter  was 
debated  at  several  meetings,  but  finally  voted  down,  and  Win- 
throp's  election  was  thereupon  approved.  He  was  formally  in- 
augurated, as  was  then  the  custom,  January  2,  i738-'39.  The 
ceremonies  included  two  Latin  orations,  the  reading  of  the 
rules  to  govern  the  professor,  prescribed  by  the  founder  of  the 


JOHN   WINTHROP. 


JOHN   WINTHROP.  4! 

professorship,  and  the  singing  of  a  psalm,  after  which  came  a 
dinner. 

Soon  after  entering  upon  his  professorship,  in  1740,  Win- 
throp  observed  a  transit  of  Mercury  over  the  sun,  and  sent  a 
report  of  his  observations  to  the  Royal  Society.  This  paper 
was  printed  in  the  society's  Transactions,  and  was  favoura- 
bly mentioned  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  French  Academy.  Prof. 
Winthrop  was  thanked  by  the  society,  and  was  asked  to  con- 
tinue his  communications.  Winthrop  was  now  launched  upon 
a  long  and  useful  career,  during  which  he  was  held  in  high 
esteem  as  a  teacher  of  science  at  home,  while  his  investiga- 
tions won  him  much  credit  abroad.  There  is  sufficient  evi- 
dence as  to  his  success  as  an  instructor  to  justify  the  words  of 
President  Quincy,  who,  in  his  History  of  Harvard  University, 
says  of  Winthrop :  "  The  zeal,  activity,  and  talent  with  which 
he  applied  himself  to  the  advancement  of  these  sciences  [i.  e., 
physics  and  astronomy]  justified  the  expectations  which  his 
early  promise  had  raised.  As  a  lecturer  he  was  skilful  and 
attractive,  and  during  forty  years  he  fulfilled  the  duties  of  the 
professor's  chair  to  universal  acceptance."  Many  of  his  papers 
on  astronomical  subjects  are  to  be  found  in  the  volumes  issued 
by  the  Royal  Society  during  his  lifetime,  among  these  being 
an  essay  on  comets,  in  Latin,  entitled  Cogitate  de  Cometis, 
which  he  transmitted  to  the  society  in  1765,  on  the  occasion  of 
his  becoming  a  member  of  that  body. 

On  November  18,  1755,  an  earthquake  occurred  which  terri- 
fied the  superstitious  people  of  all  New  England,  who  regarded 
it  as  a  Direct  expression  of  the  wrath  of  God.  To  calm  the 
popular  terror,  Prof.  Winthrop  read  a  public  lecture  on  the 
earthquake  in  the  college  chapel.  He  accounted  for  such  dis- 
turbances as  being  produced  by  the  expansive  action  of  heat 
upon  vapours  contained  in  underground  cavities,  and  argued 
ably  in  support  of  this  theory.  He  also  stated  that  earth- 
quakes had  occurred  at  intervals  in  New  England  from  the 
time  the  first  settlers  landed,  but  that  not  a  single  life  had 
ever  been  lost,  nor  had  any  great  damage  ever  been  done  by 
them.  In  conclusion,  he  maintained  that  earthquakes  are 
"neither  objections  against  the  order  of  Providence  nor 
tokens  of  God's  displeasure,  according  to  the  views  of  skep- 
tical or  superstitious  minds,  but  that  they  are  the  necessary 
consequences  of  general  laws."  This  lecture  was  published  by 
4 


42  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

request  of  the  college  authorities,  and  an  account  of  the 
earthquake  which  Winthrop  sent  to  the  Royal  Society  was  also 
printed. 

At  that  time  lightning  rods  had  been  invented  about  three 
years,  and  a  Boston  minister  published  an  essay  in  which  he 
suggested  that  the  use  of  Franklin's  "iron  points"  might 
have  caused  the  earthquake  by  drawing  the  electric  fluid  from 
the  clouds  and  concentrating  it  on  that  part  of  the  earth. 
This  led  Prof.  Winthrop  to  add  an  appendix  to  his  lecture  in 
which  he  defends  the  discoveries  of  his  friend  Franklin,  and 
shows  the  unreasonableness  of  attributing  the  earthquake  to 
the  action  of  the  rods.  He  concludes  with  the  hope  that  he 
has  "  fully  vindicated  the  character  of  those  innocent  and 
injured  iron  points."  Some  years  after,  in  1770,  he  seized 
another  opportunity  to  defend  Franklin's  invention,  by  pub- 
lishing an  essay  against  the  notion  that  there  was  great  im- 
piety in  using  lightning  rods,  since  they  prevented  the  "tokens 
of  Divine  displeasure "  from  "  doing  their  full  execution." 
Under  date  of  October  26,  1770,  he  writes  to  Franklin,  who 
was  then  in  London,  acknowledging  the  execution  of  several 
commissions  concerning  books  and  instruments,  and  says  in 
regard  to  the  rods  :  "  I  have  on  all  occasions  encouraged  them 
in  this  country,  and  have  the  satisfaction  to  find  that  it  has 
not  been  without  effect.  A  little  piece  I  inserted  in  our  news- 
papers last  summer  induced  the  people  of  Waltham  (a  town  a 
few  miles  from  hence)  to  fix  rods  upon  their  steeple,  which  had 
just  before  been  much  shattered  and  set  on  fire  by  lightning."* 

Prof.  Winthrop  had  a  clearer  understanding  of  earthquake 
movements  than  the  generality  of  scientific  men  of  his  time, 
and  was  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not  the  first,  to  apply  computa- 
tion to  these  phenomena.  The  chimney  of  his  house  was  thirty- 
two  feet  high,  and,  observing  that  bricks  were  thrown  from  it 
so  that  they  fell  thirty  feet  from  its  foot,  he  calculated  the 
speed  of  their  motion  and  found  it  to  be  twenty-one  feet  a 
second.  He  perceived  also  the  resemblance  between  the  vibra- 
tions of  the  earth  and  those  of  the  strings  of  a  musical  i^istru- 
ment. 

The  fullest  published  account  of  the  scientific  work  of  Prof. 
Winthrop  is  contained  in  the  chapter  on  Boston  and  Science, 

*  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  Proceedings,  vol.  xv,  p.  13. 


JOHN   WINTHROP.  43 

contributed  to  the  Memorial  History  of  Boston  by  Prof.  Joseph 
Lovering,  who  for  over  fifty  years  occupied  the  same  pro- 
fessorship that  Winthrop  held.  "  Prof.  Winthrop  was  fortu- 
nate," says  Prof.  Lovering,  "  in  living  at  a  time  when  he  could 
be  a  witness  of  three  celestial  occurrences  of  transcendent 
importance  to  the  progress  of  astronomy — namely,  the  first 
predicted  return  of  Halley's  comet  in  1759,  after  an  absence  of 
twenty-seven  years,  and  the  transits  of  Venus  across  the  sun  in 
1761  and  1769.  In  1759  the  accuracy  of  astronomical  predic- 
tion was  on  its  trial,  and  months  before  the  time  of  the  expected 
visit  astronomers  were  at  their  posts  and  looking;  but  they 
were  all  anticipated  by  a  Saxon  peasant,  who  first  saw  the 
comet  on  December  25,  1758.  Winthrop  saw  it  on  April  3, 
1759."  He  delivered  two  lectures  on  comets  at  this  time, 
which  were  printed  the  same  year,  and  reprinted  in  1811.  Prof. 
Winthrop  also  observed  the  comets  of  1769  and  of  1770,  "one 
remarkable  for  its  brilliancy  and  the  other  for  the  disturbances 
which  Jupiter  inflicted  upon  its  orbit,"  and  contributed  accounts 
of  the  phenomena  to  the  Boston  newspapers. 

Like  the  earthquake  already  mentioned,  the  comet  of  1759 
aroused  considerable  popular  apprehension,  and  the  following 
passage  from  one  of  Winthrop's  lectures,  in  which  he  essayed 
to  calm  this  feeling,  will  serve  as  a  good  sample  of  his  style : 
"  It  may  not  be  unseasonable  to  remark,  for  a  conclusion,  that 
as,  on  the  one  hand,  it  argues  a  temerity  unworthy  a  philo- 
sophic mind,  to  explode  every  apprehension  of  danger  from 
comets,  as  if  it  were  impossible  that  any  damage  could  ever  be 
occasioned  by  any  of  them,  because  some  idle  and  superstitious 
fancies  have  in  times  of  ignorance  prevailed  concerning  them ; 
so  on  the  other,  to  be  thrown  into  a  panic  whenever  a  comet 
appears,  on  account  of  the  ill  effects  which  some  few  of  these 
bodies  might  possibly  produce,  if  they  were  not  under  a  proper 
direction,  betrays  a  weakness  equally  unbecoming  a  reasonable 
being." 

The  transits  of  Venus,  which  were  not  to  occur  again  until 
1874  and  1882,  were  precious  opportunities  for  astronomical 
work,  and  preparations  were  widely  made  to  take  advantage  of 
them.  The  governor  of  the  province,  Francis  Bernard,  was 
interested  in  the  matter  by  Prof.  Winthrop,  and  sent  a  message 
to  the  House  of  Representatives,  stating  that  the  King  of 
England  had  sent  "  a  Man-of-War  with  Mathematicians  to  be 


44  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

stationed  in  different  Parts  of  the  East  Indies,  etc.,"  to  observe 
the  transit;  that  the  French  king  and  other  powers  had  taken 
similar  action,  the  comparison  of  observations  taken  in  different 
parts  of  the  earth  being  important ;  that  Prof.  Winthrop  had 
offered  to  go  to  Newfoundland  for  the  same  purpose ;  and  he 
therefore  recommended  that  the  House  furnish  the  professor 
transportation  on  the  province  sloop,  which  would  be  sent  to 
Penobscot  a  little  before  the  time  of  the  transit.  The  Hous*e 
of  Representatives  immediately  passed  a  vote  in  accordance 
with  this  suggestion. 

The  sloop  with  Prof.  Winthrop  on  board  sailed  from  Boston 
May  9th,  and  reached  St.  John's  thirteen  days  later.  The  pro- 
fessor took  with  him  the  college  instruments  and  two  members 
of  the  senior  class.  Some  difficulty  was  met  with  in  finding  a 
suitable  station,  but  at  last  a  position  was  taken  on  a  consider- 
able elevation,  which  was  afterward  named  Venus  Hill.  The 
work  of  setting  up  the  clock  and  other  instruments  was  made 
arduous  by  persecution  from  swarms  of  bloodthirsty  insects, 
which  had  possession  of  the  hill.  June  6th  was  the  day  of  the 
transit,  and  the  weather  proved  favourable.  In  every  part  of 
America  except  Labrador  the  phenomenon  began  before  sun- 
rise. At  St.  John's  the  sun  rose  at  4  h.  18  m.,  with  Venus  upon 
its  disk,  from  which  the  planet  passed  off  at  5  h.  6  m.  On  his 
return  Prof.  Winthrop  published  an  account  of  his  voyage  and 
his  observations. 

When  the  transit  of  June  3,  1769,  was  approaching  he  de- 
livered two  lectures  on  the  coming  phenomenon,  which  were 
published.  Dr.  Maskelyne,  then  astronomer  royal  of  England, 
desired  that  Prof.  Winthrop  should  go  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  Lake  Superior,  where  the  whole  of  this  transit  would  be 
visible,  but  his  health  would  not  admit  of  this.  Accordingly, 
he  saw  only  the  beginning  of  the  passage,  as  at  Cambridge  the 
sun  set  before  it  was  finished.  Prof.  Winthrop  observed  the 
transit  of  Mercury  January  20,  1763,  and  prepared  an  account 
of  it  for  the  Memoirs  of  the  American  Academy  of  Sciences 
(vol.  i,  p.  57),  of  which  society  he  was  one  of  the  founders. 

As  a  mathematician  and  astronomer  Prof.  Winthrop  had 
no  equal  in  the  American  colonies,  and  his  fellowship  of  the 
Royal  Society,  together  with  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  which  he 
received  from  the  University  of  Edinburgh  in  1771,  attests  his 
reputation  in  the  mother  country.  Prof.  Levering  states  that 


JOHN   WINTHROP.  45 

his  views  of  the  nature  of  heat  were  greatly  in  advance  of 
the  science  of  his  day.  His  scholarship,  moreover,  was  not 
limited  to  his  specialty.  He  wrote  Latin  with  purity  and  ele- 
gance, studied  the  Scriptures  critically  in  their  original  lan- 
guages, and  was  well  versed  in  the  tongues  of  modern  Europe. 
"  He  is,  perhaps,"  says  Quincy,  "  better  entitled  to  the  char- 
acter of  a  universal  scholar  than  any  individual  of  his  time  in 
this  country."  Rev.  Charles  Chauncy,  D.  D.,  in  A  Sketch  of 
Eminent  Men  in  New  England,  written  in  1768,  says:  "Mr. 
Winthrop,  Hollisian  professor,  I  have  been  very  free  and  inti- 
mate with.  He  is  by  far  the  greatest  man  at  the  college  in 
Cambridge.  Had  he  been  of  a  pushing  genius  and  a  disposi- 
tion to  make  a  figure  in  the  world,  he  might  have  done  it  to 
his  own  honour,  as  well  as  the  honour  of  the  college."  * 

The  office  of  a  professor  in  Harvard  College  during  the  last 
century  was  not  a  lucrative  one.  The  salaries  obtained  were 
fluctuating  and  always  small.  From  about  the  middle  of  the 
century  the  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Physics  received 
;£8o  a  year.  In  reply  to  inquiries  made  by  a  committee  of  the 
Provincial  Legislature,  Winthrop  wrote  a  letter  in  which  he 
stated  that  his  salary  had  been  far  from  adequate,  and  that  he 
had  run  in  debt  for  the  support  of  his  family. 

Prof.  Winthrop  married,  August  22,  1746,  Rebecca,  daugh- 
ter of  James  Townsend,  of  Boston,  and  by  this  marriage  had 
five  sons.  His  wife  died  after  seven  years,  and  he  married 
again  in  1756.  His  second  wife  was  Hannah,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Fayerweather,  and  widow  of  Farr  Tolman,  of  Boston. 
She  was  the  well-known  correspondent  of  Mrs.  John  Adams. 

Four  of  Prof.  Winthrop's  sons  lived  to  adult  age.  Of  these 
John  became  a  merchant  in  Boston  and  was  a  member  of 
the  Massachusetts  Legislature.  Adam  was  a  sea  captain,  and 
was  lost  at  sea  in  1774.  James  was  Librarian  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and  one  of  the 
founders  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  He  was  in 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  and  was  wounded.  William  was  an 
active  member  of  several  learned  societies. 

The  first  vacancy  in  the  presidency  of  Harvard  College  that 
occurred  during  Prof.  Winthrop's  professorship  was  made 
by  the  death  of  President  Holyoke  in  June,  1769.  Winthrop 

*  Massachusetts  Historical  Society's  Collections,  Series  I,  vol.  x,  p.  159. 


46  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

presided  at  commencement  that  year,  and  had  he  been  a  few 
years  younger  (he  was  then  fifty-five)  would  doubtless  have 
become  president  of  the  college.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Thomas 
Hollis,  in  England,  under  date  of  July  10,  1769,  Dr.  Andrew 
Eliot,  a  member  of  the  corporation,  remarks  :  "  It  is  difficult  to 
find  one  every  way  qualified  to  undertake  such  a  task.  Mr. 
Winthrop,  Hollis  Professor  of  Mathematics,  will  probably  be 
the  successor  to  Mr.  Holyoke.  His  learning  and  abilities  are 
unquestionable.  He  is  older  than  we  could  wish,  and  is  fre- 
quently taken  off  from  business  by  bodily  infirmities."  The 
office  was  tendered  to  Prof.  Winthrop,  but  he  declined  it.  In 
1774,  when  the  chair  was  again  vacant,  it  was  offered  to  Win- 
throp a  second  time,  and  again  declined. 

The  tide  of  discontent  with  the  mother  country  was  now 
running  high  in  the  colonies,  and  Winthrop  was  clearly  iden- 
tified with  the  patriot  cause.  The  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society's  Collections  (Series  V,  vol.  iv)  contain  a  correspond- 
ence between  the  professor  and  John  Adams.  The  letters 
cover  a  period  within  which  occurred  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,  the  evacuation  of  Boston,  and  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence ;  and  they  show  that  Winthrop  had  a  thorough  under- 
standing of  public  affairs,  a  fearless  patriotism,  and  an  eager 
desire  for  American  independence.  In  1773  he  was  elected  to 
the  Governor's  Council,  but,  together  with  two  other  members, 
all  having  been  opponents  of  the  Government,  he  was  nega- 
tived by  Governor  Gage,  in  compliance  with  a  special  mandate 
from  the  English  ministry.  Prof.  Winthrop  was  chosen  a 
delegate  to  the  Provincial  Congress  in  1774,  and  in  1775  was 
finally  admitted  to  a  seat  in  the  Council.  About  this  time  he 
was  appointed  Judge  of  Probate  for  Middlesex  County,  and 
held  the  office  for  the  remaining  years  of  his  life.  His  death 
occurred  in  Cambridge,  before  the  Revolutionary  struggle  was 
decided,  on  May  3,  1779. 

The  portrait  which  accompanies  this  sketch  has  been  en- 
graved from  a  photograph,  furnished  by  Mr.  Robert  C.  Win- 
throp, of  a  painting  by  Copley,  which  belonged  to  the  late 
Colonel  John  Winthrop,  of  Louisiana,  a  great-grandson  of  the 
professor,  and  his  last  descendant  in  the  male  line. 


DAVID    RITTENHOUSE. 


DAVID    RITTENHOUSE. 
1732-1796. 

"  As  a  citizen  of  Pennsylvania,"  says  William  Barton,  in 
the  preface  to  his  Memoirs  of  the  Life  of  David  Ritten- 
house;  "as  an  inestimable  public  and  private  character;  as 
a  distinguished  son  of  science,  of  great  probity  and  extensive 
usefulness  in  society — in  all  these  points  of  view,  the  history 
of  Dr.  Rittenhouse  may  be  contemplated  as  holding  a  rela- 
tionship with  almost  every  object  connected  with  science  and 
art  in  his  day  that  could  in  any  way  contribute  to  the  well- 
being  of  mankind  in  general  and  his  native  country  in  particu- 
lar." He,  in  fact,  acquired  a  fame  in  the  period  of  the  infancy 
of  American  science,  the  nature  and  extent  of  which  can 
hardly  be  realized  in  this  day ;  and  his  gifts,  then  regarded  as 
extraordinary,  were  always  freely  placed  at  the  service  of  the 
public. 

David  Rittenhouse  was  born  in  Roxborough  Township, 
near  Germantown,  Pa.,  April  8,  1732,  and  died  in  Philadelphia, 
June  26,  1796.  He  was  descended  from  a  family  of  paper- 
makers  residing  at  Arnheim,  Guelderland.  His  great-grand- 
father, Wilhelm  Rittinghuysen,  came  from  Holland  with  his 
family  in  i687-'88;  he  was  the  first  Mennonite  minister  in 
Pennsylvania ;  and  established  the  first  paper  mill  in  this  coun- 
try, at  the  spot  where  David  was  born.  David's  grandfather, 
Nicholas,  continued  in  the  hereditary  industry  of  his  family, 
and  his  father,  Matthias,  was  brought  up  in  it.  Matthias  Rit- 
tenhouse, in  1727,  married  Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Evan  Wil- 
liam, a  native  of  Wales.  Barton,  who  was  her  grandson, 
credits  her  with  "  a  cheerful  temper,"  and  "  a  mind  uncom- 
monly vigorous  and  comprehensive,"  but  states  she  had  re- 
ceived very  little  education,  owing  to  her  having  been  left  an 
orphan  at  an  early  age. 

David  was  the  third  child  and  the  eldest  of  four  sons  in  a 

47 


48  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

family  of  ten  children.  When  he  was  a  few  months  old,  his 
father  quit  paper-making  and  went  to  farming  at  Norriton, 
about  twenty  miles  from  Philadelphia.  David  was  early  put 
to  work  on  the  farm,  and  was  ploughing  at  fourteen  years  of 
age.  An  uncle  dying  had  left  him  a  chest  of  tools  and  a  few 
books  on  arithmetic  and  geometry,  with  some  manuscript 
mathematical  calculations.  These  furnished  palatable  food  to 
his  mind,  and  his  biographers  tell  of  his  having  covered  the 
handle  of  his  plough  and  the  fences  around  the  field  with  his 
workings  of  the  problems  which  they  set  before  him.  As  the 
uncle  mentioned  above  was  his  mother's  brother,  it  is  inferred 
that  he  inherited  his  genius  from  his  mother's  side.  His 
mechanical  talent  was  shown  in  his  construction  of  a  complete 
water  wheel  in  miniature  when  eight  years  old,  a  wooden  clock 
when  seventeen,  and  a  clock  with  metallic  works  at  a  later 
age.  His  father  was  not  disposed  at  first  to  favour  the  youth's 
tastes,  but  eventually  he  furnished  him  with  money  enough  to 
buy  a  set  of  clock-making  tools;  and  David  built  a  workshop 
at  Norriton,  where  he  carried  on  the  clock-making  business  for 
several  years.  He  at  the  same  time  pursued  his  studies  so 
diligently  that  he  impaired  his  constitution,  and  contracted  an 
internal  pain  that  afflicted  him  all  his  life.  Astronomy  ap- 
peared to  be  his  favourite  study;  and  he  was  interested  in 
optics  and  mechanical  science.  He  discovered  himself,  inde- 
pendently, the  method  of  fluxions,  of  .which,  in  his  imperfect 
knowledge  of  what  Newton  and  Leibnitz  had  done,  he  believed 
himself  to  be  the  originator;  and  mastered  the  English  trans- 
lation by  Motte  of  Newton's  Principia. 

The  acquaintance  which  he  formed  in  1751  with  Thomas 
Barton,  who  afterward  married  his  sister,  had  an  important  in- 
fluence in  shaping  his  career.  Rittenhouse,  according  to  Wil- 
liam Barton,  "possessed  a  sublime  native  genius;  which,  how- 
ever, was  yet  but  very  imperfectly  cultivated  for  want  of  indis- 
pensable means  of  extending  the  bounds  of  natural  knowl- 
edge." Barton  had  enjoyed  these  means,  and  had  acquired 
the  reputation  of  being  a  man  of  learning.  He  found  Ritten- 
house's  society  profitable,  and  Rittenhouse  found  his  equally 
so.  Barton  aided  Rittenhouse  greatly  by  helping  him  to  the 
books  he  needed.  Partly  through  his  instrumentality  a  cir- 
culating library  was  established  at  Norriton ;  and  he  bought 
books  for  Rittenhouse  when  he  went  to  Europe. 


DAVID   RITTENHOUSE. 


49 


The  life  of  Rittenhouse  came  near  being  cut  short  in  1756 
by  a  discharge  of  lightning  which  struck  a  poplar  tree  growing 
before  his  father's  door.  David  was  standing  between  the 
tree  and  the  house  and  suffered  a  severe  shock. 

Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  called  upon  in  1763  to  determine  the 
initial  of  the  boundary  line  between  Pennsylvania  and  Mary- 
land, his  particular  duty  being  defined  to  be  to  ascertain  and  fix 
the  "circle  to  be  drawn  at  twelve  miles'  distance  from  New 
Castle,  northward  and  westward,  with  the  beginning  of  the 
fortieth  degree  of  north  latitude,"  etc.  The  work  was  an  ar- 
duous one,  and  involved  going  through  a  number  of  tedious 
and  intricate  calculations.  It  was  performed  in  a  satisfactory 
manner — for  which  acknowledgment  was  made  in  the  shape 
of  extra  compensation — and  with  instruments  largely  of  Rit- 
tenhouse's  own  making;  and  his  observations  were  accepted 
without  change  by  the  official  astronomers,  Mason  and  Dixon, 
when  they  took  charge  of  the  work.  He  was  afterward  ap- 
pointed to  a  similar  work  in  1769,  by  the  commission  to  settle 
the  boundary  between  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  Among 
his  scientific  studies  at  this  period  were  the  investigation  of 
variations  in  the  oscillations  of  the  pendulum  under  changes 
of  temperature,  with  the  device  of  a  plan  for  compensation, 
and  the  construction  of  what  he  called  a  metalline  thermome- 
ter. This  instrument  was  so  made — on  the  principle  of  the 
expansion  and  contraction  of  metals  under  variations  of  tem- 
perature— that  the  degrees  of  heat  and  cold  were  indicated 
by  the  movements  of  an  index  moving  along  a  graduated  semi- 
circle. It  was  adapted,  in  form  and  size,  to  be  carried  in  the 
pocket.  He  discussed  the  compressibility  of  water  in  the  light 
of  an  experiment  that  had  been  reported  to  the  Royal  Society, 
and  observed,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Barton,  that,  although  the 
experiment  did  not  please  him,  he  did  not  doubt  the  fact; 
for,  "  if  the  particles  of  water  were  in  actual  contact,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive  how  any  body  could  much 
exceed  it  in  specific  gravity ;  yet  we  find  that  gold  does,  more 
than  eighteen  times."  We  find  him  also  at  this  time  (1/67) 
indulging  in  some  amusing  speculations  on  the  possibility  of 
a  man  moving  the  world.  Some  one  having  published  the 
result  of  calculations  he  had  made  respecting  the  fulfil- 
ment of  Archimedes's  famous  dictum  on  the  subject,  Mr.  Rit- 
tenhouse gave  the  result  of  his  own  computations,  which  was 


50  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

that  "  the  force  wherewith  a  man  acts  when  he  lifts  a  weight 
of  two  hundred  pounds,  if  applied  without  intermission  for 
the  space  of  one  hundred  and  five  years,  is  sufficient,  without 
any  machinery,  to  move  the  earth  one  inch  in  that  time ; 
and  it  must,  from  the  velocity  received  by  that  force  alone, 
continue  forever  after  to  move  at  the  rate  of  one  inch  in  fifty 
years."  The  first  calculator  had  computed  that  twenty-seven 
billions  of  years  would  be  required  to  accomplish  the  move- 
ment. 

Rittenhouse  married,  February  20,  1766,  Eleanor,  daughter 
of  Bernard  Colston,  by  whom  he  had  two  daughters. 

Mr.  Rittenhouse's  reputation  as  an  astronomer  became  con- 
spicuous, and  his  name,  according  to  Mr.  Barton,  acquired  a 
celebrity  even  in  the  Old  World,  "  of  which  his  early  but  now 
much-increased  fame  in  his  native  country  was  a  sure  presage." 
A  great  bound  was  given  to  his  fame  by  his  construction  of  an 
orrery,  or  apparatus  for  illustrating  the  planetary  motions,  and 
by  the  conspicuous  part  which  he  took  in  the  observations  of 
the  transit  of  Venus  of  1769. 

The  design  of  the  orrery  is  indicated  in  the  correspondence 
with  Mr.  Barton  in  1767,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Rittenhouse 
says :  "  I  did  not  design  a  machine  which  should  give  the  igno- 
rant in  astronomy  a  just  view  of  the  solar  system;  but  would 
rather  astonish  the  skilful  and  curious  examiner  by  a  most 
accurate  correspondence  between  the  situations  and  motions  of 
our  little  representatives  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  the  situ- 
ations and  motions  of  those  bodies  themselves.  I  would  have 
my  orrery  really  useful  by  making  it  capable  of  informing  us 
truly  of  astronomical  phenomena  for  any  particular  point 
of  time,  which  I  do  not  find  that  any  orrery  yet  made 
can  do." 

This  instrument  was  bought  before  it  was  finished  for 
Princeton  College.  The  trustees  of  the  College  of  Philadel- 
phia had  also  been  bargaining  for  it,  and  were  disappointed 
over  the  turn  the  affair  had  taken.  Mr.  Rittenhouse  had 
made  a  saving  clause  in  his  bargain  in  favour  of  the  Col- 
lege of  Philadelphia,  in  agreement  with  which  he  began  an- 
other orrery  for  that  institution.  "  This,"  he  said,  "  I  am  not 
sorry  for,  since  the  making  of  the  second  will  be  but  an 
amusement  compared  with  the  first ;  and  who  knows  but  that 
the  rest  of  the  colonies  may  catch  the  contagion  ? "  The 


DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  51 

sum  of  two  hundred  pounds  was  obtained  toward  paying  for 
the  instrument  by  means  of  lectures  on  astronomy  delivered 
by  Rittenhouse's  friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  Provost  of  the 
College  of  Philadelphia,  concerning  which  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Peters  wrote,  "  The  doctor  in  his  introductory  lecture  was 
honoured  with  the  principal  men  of  all  denominations,  who 
swallowed  every  word  he  said  with  the  pleasure  that  attends 
the  eating  of  the  choicest  viands,  and  in  the  close,  when  he 
came  to  mention  the  orrery,  he  overexcelled  his  very  self." 
The  members  of  the  Assembly  of  Pennsylvania  took  a  view 
of  the  orrery,  and,  "  being  of  the  opinion  that  it  greatly  ex- 
ceeds all  others  hitherto  constructed,  in  demonstrating  the 
true  Situations  of  the  celestial  Bodies,  their  Magnitudes,  Mo- 
tions, Distances,  Periods,  Eclipses,  and  Order,  upon  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Newtonian  System,"  voted  the  constructor  three 
hundred  pounds  in  consideration  of  his  mathematical  genius 
and  mechanical  abilities,  and  appointed  a  committee  to  agree 
with  him  for  a  new  orrery  for  the  use  of  the  public.  This 
purpose  was  not  carried  out.  Mr.  Rittenhouse  became  engaged 
in  public  enterprises,  which  occupied  his  time  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution,  when  all  other  interests  were  sus- 
pended. 

The  praises  which  were  bestowed  upon  Mr.  Rittenhouse  for 
his  orrery  were  extravagant,  and  seem  now  even  absurd ;  but 
nothing,  perhaps,  can  more  clearly  illustrate  the  infantine  con- 
dition of  American  science  at  the  time. 

Mr.  Barton,  by  way  of  emphasizing  the  assertion  that  the 
skill  and  accuracy  he  displayed  in  the  construction  of  his  mathe- 
matical and  astronomical  instruments  were  not  surpassed  by 
similar  works  of  the  most  celebrated  British  mathematicians, 
remarks  that  "his  profoundness  in.  astronomical  science  and 
his  wonderful  ingenuity,  manifested  in  the  construction  of  his 
orrery,  leave  him  without  a  rival  in  the  twofold  character  of  an 
astronomer  and  mechanic."  Dr.  Jedediah  Morse,  in  his  Geog- 
raphy (1789),  noticing  some  of  the  more  prominent  produc- 
tions of  scientific  ingenuity  and  skill  in  America,  observed  that 
"every  combination  of  machinery  may  be  expected  from  a 
country  a  native  son  of  which,  reaching  this  inestimable  object 
in  its  highest  point,  has  epitomized  the  motions  of  the  spheres 
that  roll  throughout  the  universe."  Mr.  Thomas  Penn,  of 
London,  was  surprised  that  the  instrument  could  have  been 


52  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

executed  in  Pennsylvania.     Joel  Barlow  wrote,  in  the  Vision 
of  Columbus : 

"  See  the  sage  Rittenhouse,  with  ardent  eye, 
Lift  the  long  tube  and  pierce  the  starry  sky ; 
Clear  in  his  view  the  circling  systems  roll, 
And  broader  splendours  gild  the  central  pole  ; 
He  marks  what  laws  th'  eccentric  wand'rers  bind, 
Copies  Creation  in  his  forming  mind, 
And  bids  beneath  his  hand  in  semblance  rise, 
With  mimic  orbs,  the  labours  of  the  skies." 

Thomas  Jefferson,  successor  of  Mr.  Rittenhouse  as  Presi- 
dent of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  wrote,  in  his  Notes 
on  Virginia,  in  refutation  of  the  Abbe*  Reynal's  assertion  that 
America  had  "  not  produced  one  able  mathematician,  one  man 
of  genius  in  a  single  art  or  science":  "We  have  supposed  Mr. 
Rittenhouse  second  to  no  astronomer  living;  that  in  genius  he 
must  be  the  first,  because  he  is  self-taught.  As  an  artist  he 
has  exhibited  as  great  a  proof  of  mechanical  genius  as  the 
world  has  ever  produced.  He  has  not,  indeed,  made  a  world ; 
but  he  has  by  imitation  approached  nearer  its  Maker  than  any 
man  who  has  lived  from  the  creation  to  this  day." 

A  committee  of  thirteen  persons  was  appointed  by  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  early  in  1769  to  view  the 
transit  of  Venus,  which  was  to  occur  on  the  3d  of  June — a 
phenomenon  which  had  been  scientifically  observed  only  twice 
before.  This  committee  was  divided  into  three,  for  observa- 
tion at  three  stations — Philadelphia,  Mr.  Rittenhouse's  home 
at  Norriton,  and  the  lighthouse  near  Cape  Henlopen.  Three 
other  observers  were  associated  with  Mr.  Rittenhouse  at  Norri- 
ton. An  observatory  was  furnished,  and  the  preparations  and 
calculations  preliminary  to  taking  the  observations  were  made 
by  Mr.  Rittenhouse.  Some  instruments  were  bought  for  the 
other  stations.  For  Norriton  a  reflecting  telescope  was  fur- 
nished by  Mr.  Maskelyne,  astronomer  royal  at  Greenwich, 
which  was  afterward  given  to  the  Philadelphia  College ;  an 
astronomical  quadrant  by  the  Earl  of  Stirling,  of  East  Jersey ; 
and  an  equal-altitude  instrument,  a  transit  telescope,  and  a 
timepiece  were  made  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse.  The  results  of  the 
observations  were  communicated  to  the  American  Philosophical 
Society,  and  a  report  of  them  was  furnished  to  Mr.  Maskelyne, 
who  'declared  that  they  seemed  excellent  and  complete,  and 


DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  53 

did  honour  to  the  gentlemen  who  made  them  and  to  those  who 
promoted  the  undertaking.  The  whole  affair,  in  fact,  gave  the 
observers  great  credit  abroad,  and  was  regarded  as  promising 
well  for  the  future  of  American  science.  The  importance  of 
the  observation  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  it  furnished 
one  of  the  elements  for  verifying  the  great  astronomical  unit 
— the  earth's  distance  from  the  sun. 

On  the  9th  of  November  following  this  observation  a 
transit  of  Mercury — the  fourth  ever  witnessed — was  observed 
at  Norriton  by  Mr.  Rittenhouse  and  his  fellow-astronomers, 
and  a  report  on  the  subject  was  filed  with  the  Philosophical 
Society.  Shortly  after  this  the  difference  of  the  meridians  of 
Norriton  and  Philadelphia  was  determined  by  a  committee,  of 
which  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  one,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Maske- 
lyne,  who  wished  to  connect  the  observations  of  the  longitude 
of  Norriton  with  those  made  by  Messrs.  Mason  and  Dixon  in 
the  course  of  measuring  the  degree  of  latitude. 

About  this  time  a  scheme  was  started  by  Dr.  Smith  to 
induce  Mr.  Rittenhouse  to  remove  to  Philadelphia.  Recom- 
mending him  for  appointment  as  a  trustee  of  the  Loan  Office, 
then  before  the  Assembly,  Mr.  Smith  represented  to  the 
Speaker  that  he  "ought  to  be  encouraged  to  come  to  town,  to 
take  a  lead  in  a  manufacture,  optical  and  mathematical,  which 
never  had  been  attempted  in  America,  and  drew  thousands  of 
pounds  to  England  for  instruments,  often  ill  finished;  and  it 
would  redound  to  the  honour  of  Philadelphia  to  take  a  lead  in 
this,  and  of  the  Assembly  to  encourage  it."  The  proposition 
was  received  enthusiastically,  and  the  whole  house  rose  to  vote 
for  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  one  of  the  members  exclaiming,  "  Our 
name  is  legion  for  this  vote."  The  Assembly  adjourned,  how- 
ever, without  passing  the  bill,  although  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was 
afterward  appointed  to  the  position  for  which  he  was  named 
in  it.  He  removed  to  Philadelphia,  on  his  own  account,  in 
the  fall  of  1770.  The  next  scientific  investigation  in  which  he 
appears  to  have  been  engaged  was  the  observation  of  the 
comet  of  1770,  of  which  he  calculated  the  elements,  and  com- 
municated the  results  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
We  afterward  find  him,  with  several  other  gentlemen,  making 
experiments  on  the  electric  eel  for  the  purpose  of  ascertain- 
ing the  origin  of  the  shock  which  the  animal  emits  on  being 
touched. 


54 


PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


From  this  time  on,  Rittenhouse  was  to  a  considerable  extent 
engaged  in  works  in  the  service  of  the  public,  to  some  of  which 
he  was  called  in  consequence  of  his  scientific  ability  and  me- 
chanical skill,  to  others  commended  by  his  character  as  a 
citizen  and  his  integrity.  He  was  given  charge  of  the  State 
House  clock ;  appointed  to  survey  the  lands  between  the  Sus- 
quehanna  and  Delaware  Rivers ;  to  superintend  the  improve- 
ment of  the  Schuylkill;  and  to  determine  the  northwestern 
extremity  of  the  boundary  between  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania. 

In  1775  the  American  Philosophical  Society  presented  to 
the  Pennsylvania  Assembly  a  plan  for  the  erection  of  an  ob- 
servatory under  State  control,  with  Mr.  Rittenhouse  as  "  public 
astronomical  observer " ;  describing  him  as  "  a  gentleman 
whose  abilities,  speculative  as  well  as  practical,  would  do 
honour  to  any  country.  .  .  .  Under  his  auspices  the  work 
could  now  be  undertaken  with  the  greatest  advantages ;  and 
others  may  be  bred  up  by  him,  to  prosecute  it  in  future  times ; 
but,  if  the  present  opportunity  is  neglected,  perhaps  whole 
centuries  may  not  afford  another.  To  rescue  such  a  man  from 
the  drudgery  of  manual  labour,  and  give  him  an  occasion  of 
indulging  the  bent  of  his  genius  with  advantage  to  his  country, 
is  an  honour  which  crowned  heads  might  glory  in ;  but  it  is  an 
honour  also,  which  it  is  hoped,  in  the  case  of  a  native,  Penn- 
sylvania would  not  yield  to  the  greatest  prince  or  people  on 
earth."  The  Revolution  came  on,  and  the  scheme  was  not 
carried  out. 

In  view  of  that  crisis,  Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  commissioned  to 
prepare  moulds  and  have  iron  clock  weights  cast,  to  be  ex- 
changed with  the  people  for  their  leaden  ones;  as  engineer  to 
the  Committee  of  Safety,  to  arrange  for  casting  cannon ;  to 
view  a  site  for  the  erection  of  a  Continental  powder  mill ;  to 
conduct  experiments  for  rifling  cannon  and  musket  balls  ;  to 
devise  a  method  of  fastening  a  chain  for  the  protection  of  the 
river;  to  superintend  the  manufacture  of  saltpetre,  and  to 
locate  a  magazine  for  military  stores.  He  was  a  member  of 
the  Committee  of  Safety  in  April,  its  vice-president  in  August, 
and  its  presiding  officer  in  November,  1776.  In  the  same 
year  he  was  a  member  of  the  Assembly  from  Philadelphia, 
and  a  member  of  the  first  Constitutional  Convention  of  Penn- 
sylvania; a  member  of  the  Board  of  War;  and  one  of  the 


DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  55 

Council  of  Safety,  which  had  absolute  powers.  He  was  the 
first  State  Treasurer  of  Pennsylvania,  from  1777  to  1789,  when 
he  declined  to  serve  any  longer.  He  was  the  first  Direct- 
or of  the  United  States  Mint,  serving  for  three  years  from 
1792;  and  was  called  upon  on  several  occasions  to  serve  on 
commissions  for  the  adjustment  of  boundaries.  In  connection 
with  these  public  employments  we  find  a  curious  letter  from 
Mr.  Jefferson  to  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  written  in  1778,  protesting 
against  his  wasting  his  abilities  on  affairs  of  state.  "  I  am 
satisfied,"  he  says,  "  that  there  is  an  order  of  geniuses  above 
that  obligation  [to  conduct  government],  and  therefore  exempt 
from  it.  No  one  can  conceive  that  Nature  ever  intended  to 
throw  away  a  Newton  upon  the  occupations  of  a  crown.  It 
would  have  been  a  prodigality  for  which  even  the  conduct  of 
Providence  might  have  been  arraigned  had  he  been  by  birth 
annexed  to  what  was  so  far  below  him.  ...  I  doubt  not  there 
are  in  your  country  many  persons  equal  to  the  task  of  con- 
ducting government ;  but  you  should  consider  that  the  world 
has  but  one  Rittenhouse,  and  that  it  never  had  one  be- 
fore." 

Mr.  Rittenhouse  was  Professor  of  Astronomy  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  from  1779  till  1782,  and  was  a  trustee 
of  the  institution,  continuing  in  that  office  after  its  reorganiza- 
tion in  1791.  He  was  made  one  of  the  secretaries  of  the  Ameri- 
can Philosophical  Society  in  1771  ;  became  its  vice-president  in 
1786;  and  succeeded  Benjamin  Franklin  as  president,  on  his 
death  in  1790.  He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  1782,  and  an  Honorary  Fel- 
low of  the  Royal  Society  in  1795.  He  received  degrees  from 
the  College  of  Philadelphia,  William  and  Mary  College,  and 
Princeton  College. 

He  was  tall  and  slender,  quick  in  gait,  had  a  countenance 
"  indicative  of  intelligence,  complacency,  and  goodness,"  and  a 
disposition  and  manners  that  secured  him  friends  and  kept 
them.  He  bore  testimony  against  the  slave  trade,  and  sympa- 
thized with  the  original  motives  of  the  French  Revolution  to 
such  an  extent  that  he  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the 
Democratic  Society,  and  was  made  its  president — but  this  was 
before  the  excesses  of  the  Revolution  were  committed.  While 
he  might  be  called  self-educated,  he  was  not,  as  Mr.  Barton 
shows,  wholly  without  assistance  in  pursuing  his  studies,  al- 


56  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

though  some  writers  had  mistakenly  affirmed  this,  but  that 
assistance  was  small.  Dr.  Rush  asserted,  in  the  eulogy  he 
pronounced  upon  him,  that  the  eminence  he  attained  was  to 
be  ascribed  "  chiefly  to  his  having  escaped  the  pernicious  in- 
fluence of  monkish  learning  upon  his  mind  in  early  life " ; 
otherwise,  "  instead  of  revolving  through  life  in  a  planetary 
orbit,"  he  might  have  spent  his  time  "  in  composing  syllogisms, 
or  in  measuring  the  feet  of  Greek  and  Latin  poetry."  He 
understood  the  German  and  Low  Dutch  languages,  acquired  a 
reading  knowledge  of  French,  and  "  overcame  in  a  great  degree 
the  difficulties  of  the  Latin  tongue."  He  was  a  firm  believer 
in  the  Christian  religion,  though  he  was  not  attached  to  any 
church.  That  speculative  disquisitions  were  of  little  interest 
to  him  is  shown  by  his  remark  concerning  a  conversation  with 
a  clerical  gentleman,  that  it  was  "  not,  perhaps,  greatly  to  the 
satisfaction  of  either  of  us ;  for  he  appears  to  be  a  mystical 
philosopher,  and  I,  you  know,  care  not  a  farthing  for  anything 
but  sober  certainty  in  philosophy."  He  published  but  little, 
because,  as  his  biographer  believes,  he  was  too  busy  with  work 
to  give  his  time  to  the  composition  of  formal  papers.  The 
list  of  his  contributions  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
includes  twenty-two  titles  of  papers  relating  to  his  orrery ; 
the  transits  of  Venus  and  Mercury;  the  comet  of  1770;  a 
method  of  deducing  the  true  time  of  the  sun's  passing  the 
meridian ;  the  difference  of  longitude  between  the  observa- 
tions of  Norriton  and  Philadelphia;  an  explanation  of  an  op- 
tical deception  ;  experiments  on  magnetism  ;  a  remarkable  me- 
teor seen  in  1779;  a  comet  observed  in  1784;  a  new  method 
of  placing  the  meridian  mark ;  an  optical  problem ;  astro- 
nomical observations  (on  the  Georgium  Sidus  and  a  transit 
of  Mercury) ;  an  account  of  several  houses  struck  with  light- 
ning; another  account  of  the  effects  of  a  stroke  of  lightning; 
several  astronomical  observations  described  in  a  single 
paper;  a  mathematical  problem ;  a  comet  observed  in  1793; 
the  improvement  of  time-keepers;  the  expansion  of  wood 
by  heat ;  a  problem  in  logarithms ;  and  the  mode  of  de- 
termining the  true  place  of  a  planet  in  an  elliptical  orbit 
— his  last  paper,  read  February  5,  1796.  To  these  is  add- 
ed his  oration  on  "  Astronomy,"  delivered  before  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  on  the  24th  of  February, 
1775,  and  inscribed  "To  the  delegates  of  the  thirteen 


DAVID   RITTENHOUSE.  57 

United  Colonies."  In  this  oration,  three  years  before  the 
announcement  of  Mayer's  discovery  of  the  proper  motion 
of  certain  stars,  and  six  years  before  Herschel's  discovery 
of  Uranus,  the  author  put  forth  the  suggestion,  which  has 
since  proved  a  presage,  that  the  fixed  stars,  and  particu- 
larly the  Milky  Way,  would  afford  fruitful  fields  of  obser- 
vation. 


GOTTHILF  HEINRICH  ERNST  MUHLENBERG. 


THE  late  Prof.  J.  M.  Maisch,  in  his  memorial  oration  on 
Muhlenberg  as  a  Botanist,*  laid  stress  upon  the  frequency 
with  which  his  name  is  met  in  works  of  descriptive  botany  as 
that  of  the  person  who  first  recognized  as  separate  and  scien- 
tifically designated  some  particular  genus  or  species.  Waiving 
all  considerations  of  credit  for  priority  or  of  personal  fame, 
the  leading  aim  in  all  Muhlenberg's  botanical  work  seems  to 
have  been  to  assure  the  precise  and  accurate  definition  of  the 
plant  with  which  he  was  for  the  moment  dealing. 

Names  of  the  Muhlenberg  family  are  conspicuous  in  the 
history  of  this  country.  Its  founder  in  America,  Pastor  Hein- 
rich  Melchior  Muhlenberg,  who  came  to  Philadelphia  by  way 
of  Charleston,  S.  C.,  in  1742,  was  known  as  the  patriarch  of 
the  Lutheran  Church  in  the  United  States.  His  eldest  son, 
Johann  Peter  Gabriel,  also  a  minister  in  his  earlier  life,  was  a 
major-general  in  the  Revolutionary  War,  Vice-President  of 
Pennsylvania,  for  six  years  a  member  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives of  the  United  States,  a  United  States  Senator,  and 
an  officer  of  the  revenue.  Another  son,  Friedrich  August,  who 
also  began  his  career  in  the  pulpit,  was  a  member  of  the  Con- 
tinental Congress,  a  member  and  Speaker  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Legislature,  and  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  first  four  Congresses,  during  two  of  which  he  was 
Speaker. 

The  third  son,  Gotthilf  Heinrich  Ernst  Muhlenberg,  the 
subject  of  the  present  sketch,  was  born  in  New  Providence, 


*  Delivered  before  the  Pioneerverein  of  Philadelphia,  May  6,  1886,  and 
published  in  Dr.  Fr.  Hoffmann's  Pharmaceutische  Rundschau,  June,  1886  ; 
also  separately.  It  is  the  principal  source  whence  we  have  drawn  the  matter 
of  this  sketch. 

58 


GOTTHILF  H.  E.   MUHLENBERG. 


GOTTHILF   HEINRICH   ERNST    MUHLENBERG. 


59 


Montgomery  County,  Pa.,  November  17,  1753,  and  died  in 
Lancaster,  Pa.,  May  23,  1815.  He  attended  schools  in  his 
native  place  and  in  Philadelphia,  whither  his  family  removed 
in  1761.  At  the  age  of  ten  years  he  was  sent  with  his  elder 
brothers  to  Halle,  in  order  to  finish  his  academic  studies 
and  to  prepare  for  the  ministry.  Arrived  in  Holland,  the 
brothers  proceeded  directly  to  Halle,  while  young  Henry  set 
out  in  the  care  of  an  attendant  for  Einbeck,  his  father's  native 
place,  where  many  of  his  relatives  still  lived.  Deserted  on  the 
journey  by  the  man  to  whose  protection  he  had  been  confided, 
this  boy,  left  without  money  in  a  strange  land,  bravely  pushed 
forward  on  foot  and  thus  finally  reached  his  destination. 
After  his  visit  to  Einbeck  he  entered  a  school  in  Halle,  in 
which  he  continued  about  six  years.  He  spent  a  longer  time 
in  the  higher  classes  than  was  necessary,  awaiting  the  age  at 
which  he  could  be  admitted  to  the  university.  This  he  en- 
tered in  1769,  but  remained  in  attendance  only  about  a  year. 
He  returned  to  Pennsylvania  in  1770,  and  was  ordained  by  the 
synod  of  his  church  and  appointed  assistant  to  his  father  in  the 
pastoral  work  "  at  Philadelphia,  Barren  Hill,  and  on  the  Rari- 
tan."  In  1774  he  was  called  to  be  the  third  preacher  in  Phila- 
delphia. The  prominence  of  his  brothers  in  the  Revolution- 
ary councils  exposed  him  to  dangers  from  the  British,  as  they 
approached  the  scene  of  his  labours,  and  he  was  twice  obliged 
to  leave  the  city,  in  1776  and  1777.  On  the  second  occasion 
he  escaped  with  difficulty,  disguised  as  an  Indian.  In  the 
course  of  the  war  the  property  which  belonged  to  his  wife 
was  sacrificed,  and  a  large  portion  of  his  own  estate  was 
lost  in  the  Loan  Office.  Yet  he  was  constantly  active  with 
voice  and  pen  in  urging  his  fellow-citizens  to  stand  up  in 
defence  of  their  common  country.  In  1780  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Lutheran  church  at  Lancaster,  where  he  spent  the  rest 
of  his  life.  Mr.  Muhlenberg  was  married,  in  1774,  to  Cath- 
erine, daughter  of  Philip  Hall,  of  Philadelphia.  He  had  two 
sons;  one  of  them,  Henry  Augustus,  won  a  high  reputation, 
first  as  clergyman,  and  afterward  in  public  affairs.  The  other 
son,  Frederick  Augustus,  became  an  able  physician  in  Lanc- 
aster, Pa. 

His  work  in  botany  began  during  his  residence  in  the 
country  following  his  flight  from  Philadelphia.  He  resumed 
the  study  earnestly  after  his  return  to  the  city,  and  becarne 


6o  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

deeply  interested  in  the  less  conspicuous  flowering  plants  and 
the  cryptogams.  Botanists  had  not  been  idle  in  the  study  of 
North  American  plants.  The  field  of  the  present  Middle 
Atlantic  States  had  been  explored  with  considerable  energy 
before  Muhlenberg's  time.  New  species  of  plants  had  been 
discovered  and  additional  information  had  been  gained  con- 
cerning species  already  known.  The  scientific  value  of  these 
observations,  attested  by  the  herbariums  which  still  exist,  and 
by  what  Muhlenberg  furnished  for  publication,  is  enhanced 
and  interest  is  added  to  them  by  a  careful  perusal  of  Muhlen- 
berg's correspondence,  a  part  of  which  he  kept  and  is  now  pre- 
served by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania.  These  let- 
ters— some  from  European  naturalists  and  others  from  Ameri- 
can— were  written  in  the  last  sixteen  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  and  the  first  and  part  of  the  second  decades  of  the  nine- 
teenth, and  are  often  annotated  with  Muhlenberg's  remarks. 
Of  his  own  letters  only  a  few  copies  are  present,  chiefly  those 
which  he  wrote  between  1791  and  1794  to  Dr.  Manasseh  Cut- 
ler, of  Ipswich,  Mass.  Further,  a  number  of  letters  from 
various  students,  together  with  notebooks,  botanical  notices, 
descriptions,  and  outlines  in  Muhlenberg's  handwriting  are  in 
the  possession  of  his  descendants,  or  have  been  handed  over 
by  them  to  scientific  societies ;  while  in  the  works  of  Pursh 
(1814),  Schecut  (1806),  Le  Conte  (1811),  and  Bigelow  (1814) 
is  incorporated  matter  borrowed  from  the  results  of  his  re- 
searches. 

The  notebooks  bear  witness  to  the  earnestness  with  which 
Muhlenberg  took  up  and  pursued  his  botanical  studies  from 
the  beginning.  During  the  year  1778  may  be  found  numerous 
descriptions  of  plants  like  that  of  Eupatorium  purpureum, 
trumpetseed  or  gravel  root;  to  which  are  added  such  notes 
as  "  is  probably  Eupatorium  (altissimuni)"  Doubtful  remarks 
of  the  kind  abound.  "  It  is  probably  Actea  ?  "  "  It  may  be 
Azalea?"  "Perhaps  it  is  Convallaria  ?  "  It  is  evident  from 
such  notes  that  Muhlenberg  had  not  advanced  far  in  acquaint- 
ance with  the  wild  plants  in  the  summer  of  1778.  In  the  same 
year  he  seems  to  have  drawn  up  a  plan  of  studies  by  the  sys- 
tematic execution  of  which  he  could  hardly  fail  to  acquire  the 
desired  knowledge. 

It  was  not  long  before  Muhlenberg  became  engaged  in 
correspondence  with  other  botanists.  Dr.  Johann  David 


GOTTHILF    HEINRICH   ERNST    MUHLENBERG.  6l 

Schopf,  an  officer  of  the  Hessian  troops  stationed  in  New  York 
during  the  Revolutionary  War,  who  traveled  through  the 
Eastern  States  to  Florida,  after  the  conclusion  of  peace,  in 
search  of  medicinal  plants,  became  acquainted  with  Muhlen- 
berg  and  was  assisted  by  him.  After  his  return  to  Germany 
he  was  the  occasion  of  a  correspondence  between  Muhlenberg 
and  Prof.  Schreber,  of  Erlangen,  and  this  was  followed  by  ex- 
changes of  letters  with  other  eminent  botanists  in  Germany, 
England,  France,  and  Sweden,  as  well  as  with  Americans. 

Like  a  true  naturalist,  Muhlenberg  continued  to  exercise 
the  greatest  care  and  thoroughness  in  observation  and  research. 
A  botanical  excursion  and  note  book  of  1/85  contains  the  fol- 
lowing plan  of  work : 

"  This  year  I  shall  again  keep  a  calendar  of  all  plants  as  I 
may  observe  them,  especially  when  in  bloom.  When  I  am 
quite  certain,  I  shall  set  down  only  the  Linnaean  name;  when 
not  quite  certain,  I  shall  make  a  full  description.  Especially 
shall  I  try  to  complete  the  descriptions  of  1/89  in  those  kinds 
of  plants  in  which  many  species  are  most  exact.  As  I  very 
carefully  explored  this  region  last  year,  I  shall  this  year  visit 
other  regions,  namely:  i.  The  mountains  on  the  Susquehanna, 
in  May  and  July.  2.  The  mountains  called  Chestnut  Moun- 
tains, also  twice,  etc.  I  must  further  call  upon  apothecaries 
and  take  other  pains  to  learn  the  officinal  plants,  their  virtues 
and  their  common  names.  I  must  this  year  pay  particular  at- 
tention to  the  seeds,  and  especially  to  describe  all  herbs  as 
completely  and  exactly  as  possible,  especially  when  I  am  not 
wholly  certain.  I  shall  give  particular  attention  to  those  of 
which  there  are  many  species,  such  as  asclepias,  convolvulus, 
serratula,  aster,  solidago,  and  all  the  ferns.  .  .  .  The  seed  ves- 
sels and  seeds  are  very  important  for  the  genus  and  species, 
and  I  must  therefore  give  careful  attention  to  them."  He  also 
indicates  here  as  one  of  his  purposes,  besides  the  native  plants, 
to  observe  all  the  exotics,  whether  they  need  protection  in  win- 
ter or  are  completely  acclimated. 

In  the  spring  of  1791  he  was  able  to  inform  Dr.  Cutler  that 
he  had  collected  more  than  eleven  hundred  different  plants  in  a 
circuit  of  about  three  miles  from  Lancaster,  and  that  he  was 
devoting  himself  to  the  collection  of  material  concerning  their 
medicinal  and  economic  applications.  In  a  later  letter,  Novem- 
ber 8,  1/91,  he  wrote:  "If  the  medicinal  application  seems  to 


62  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

be  sufficiently  confirmed  from  different  sides,  and  agrees  with 
the  character  of  the  plant,  I  either  try  it  on  myself  or  com- 
mend it  to  my  friends.  I  raise  most  of  the  grasses  in  my 
garden,  and  experiment  how  often  they  can  be  cut,  .and 
whether  they  are  readily  eaten  by  horses  or  cattle."  These 
grasses  numbered  at  the  beginning  of  1798  one  hundred  and 
fifty-six  species,  including  many  introduced  ones,  and  among 
them  were  a  large  number  of  new  species  and  at  least  one  new 
genus.  This  collecting  and  testing  of  grasses  is  mentioned  in 
other  letters.  An  exchange  seems  to  have  been  arranged  with 
Prof.  Schreber,  of  American  plants  for  foreign  grasses ;  and, 
besides  mosses,  grasses  of  New  England  were  obtained  from 
Dr.  Cutler,  especially  such  as  grew  near  the  sea. 

Some  of  these  notes  on  the  medicinal  properties  of  plants, 
Muhlenberg  says,  were  furnished  to  Dr.  Schopf  for  use  in  his 
contemplated  work  on  American  Materia  Medica.  Although  the 
author  of  that  work,  which  was  published  in  1787,  acknowledged 
indebtedness  for  information  to  several  other  American  bota- 
nists, he  does  not  give  Muhlenberg's  name — a  most  ungrateful 
omission.  A  similar  case  occurred  in  connection  with  an  Ameri- 
can book.  When  Muhlenberg  first  saw  a  copy  of  Bigelow's 
Medical  Botany,  he  could  not  help  remarking  to  his  son,  after 
looking  through  it,  "  This  gentleman  has  appropriated  to  him- 
self all  my  explanations,  without  making  any  acknowledg- 
ment." But  he  never  called  public  attention  to  this,  and  there 
were  other  such  trespasses  which  were  also  let  pass  unnoticed. 

In  July,  1785,  Muhlenberg  communicated  to  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  an  outline  of  a  Flora  Lancastriensis  con- 
taining the  results  of  his  own  observations  on  the  plants  and 
their  habits.  At  the  same  time  he  presented  a  manuscript 
Calendar  of  Flowers.  In  February,  1/91,  he  communicated 
the  Index  Flora  Lancastriensis.  This  was  published  in  the  third 
volume  of  the  first  series  of  the  Transactions  of  the  society. 
It  is  arranged  according  to  the  Linnsean  system,  and  contains 
four  hundred  and  fifty-four  genera  with  nearly  eleven  hundred 
species,  including  both  wild  and  cultivated  plants.  Of  the 
naming  of  these  plants,  Muhlenberg  remarked  in  a  note: 
"When  I  found  no  name  in  Linnaeus's  system,  I  took  a  name 
from  other  recently  published  works,  or  from  the  letters  of  Dr. 
Schreber,  with  whom  I  kept  up  a  correspondence.  When  I 
found  no  name  in  this  way,  I  was  obliged  to  give  one  myself 


GOTTHILF   HEINRICH   ERNST   MUHLENBERG.  63 

and  to  add  to  it  N.  S.,  till  better  information  came  from  more 
capable  botanists."  The  cryptogamous  plants  are  repre- 
sented in  this  index  by  twenty-five  genera  with  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  species.  The  work,  as  its  name  implies,  con- 
sists merely  of  the  enumeration  of  the  species  observed,  with- 
out description  or  indication  of  their  habits  or  uses.  A  supple- 
ment to  this  Index,  presented  to  the  American  Philosophical 
Society  in  September,  1796,  and  published  in  the  fourth  volume 
of  its  Transactions,  contained  forty-four  additional  genera  with 
sixty-two  species  of  phanerogams,  of  which  nine  were  hitherto 
unknown  species  of  grasses ;  while  the  cryptogams  were  further 
represented  by  two  hundred  and  twenty-six  additional  species, 
belonging  to  twenty-nine  genera. 

Muhlenberg  perceived  very  early  in  his  botanical  studies 
how  great  confusion  was  likely  to  arise  if  names  were  conferred 
upon  plants  supposed  to  be  new,  without  considering  whether 
they  might  not  have  been  previously  identified  and  named  by 
others.  We  have  already  described  the  painstaking  care  he 
took  in  his  own  notes  to  find  the  correct  names  of  his  speci- 
mens. While  he  was  critical  of  the  work  of  others,  he  was 
always  ready  to  recognise  their  merit,  and  to  make  allowance 
for  their  imperfections.  He  wrote  to  Dr.  Cutler  of  his  work 
on  the  Useful  Plants  of  New  England  that,  although  the  author 
regarded  it  as  immature,  "  it  was  of  great  use  to  me,  and  I  was 
very  much  pleased  with  it.  Every  beginning  will  be  imperfect, 
especially  in  a  new  country,  and  I  have  not  yet  read  any  botan- 
ical work  without  errors.  Even  Linnaeus's  works,  which  were 
prepared  with  so  much  industry,  are  full  of  them."  In  another 
place  he  wrote  :  "  Herr  Aiton,*  in  my  opinion,  makes  too  many 
species  out  of  varieties  ;  for  instance,  his  asters  and  golden-rods. 
We  must  expect  such  things  when  descriptions  are  made  from 
specimens  taken  from  a  garden  instead  of  from  their  natural 
habitats,  where  plants  grow  numerously  and  in  various  soils." 
Other  criticisms  of  similar  tenor  may  be  taken  from  his  letters, 
all  made  from  the  point  of  view  of  exactness  in  identification 
and  description. 

Freedom  from  self-glorification  and  from  solicitude  for  the 
recognition  of  his  work  are  patent  in  all  his  writings  and  trans- 
actions. When  Dr.  Barton  announced,  in  1791,  his  illustrated 

*  In  his  Hortus  Kewensis,  1789. 


64  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Flora  of  Pennsylvania  as  in  preparation,  Muhlenberg  con- 
cluded that  as  that  author  had  seen  his  manuscripts  and  her- 
barium, it  would  not  be  necessary  for  him  to  publish  anything 
except  a  few  additional  notes  which  he  might  make  during  the 
year,  and  a  Floral  Calendar.  "  Excuse  my  enthusiasm  for 
science,"  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Cutler,  in  1792,  "which  has  given  me 
so  many  pleasant  hours,  and  which,  I  know,  has  been  cultivated 
by  you  with  great  success.  Botany  needs  your  co-operation, 
and  when  you  have  prepared  a  full  table,  please  leave  a  few 
fragments  for  me."  It  was  this  readiness  to  give  credit  to 
the  merit  of  others,  combined  with  his  clear  vision  of  the  con- 
fusion that  threatened  to  arise  from  the  continuance  of  plan- 
less labours,  that  decided  him  as  early  as  1785  to  bring  out  a 
plan  for  common  labour  in  making  up  the  Flora  of  North 
America.  He  came  to  the  Philosophical  Society  again  in  1790 
or  1791  with  this  plan.  "1  repeat,"  he  writes,  "my  formerly 
expressed  desire  that  a  number  of  my  learned  countrymen 
should  unite  in  botanical  investigation  and  send  in  their  floras 
to  the  society  for  revision  and  publication,  so  that  by  combi- 
nation of  the  floras  of  the  different  States  we  may  obtain  a 
flora  of  the  United  States  which  shall  rest  on  good  and  definite 
observation."  While  this  plan  was  not  carried  into  execution 
through  the  medium  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
Muhlenberg  again  and  again  returned  to  it  in  his  extensive 
correspondence.  Thus  he  wrote  :  "  Others  should  do  the  same 
(that  is,  search  out  the  flora  of  the  neighbourhood  of  their 
homes),  and,  after  collecting  material  for  a  dozen  years,  let  a 
Flora  of  North  America  be  written."  Further,  "  I  first  sent  in 
a  sketch,  and  in  1790  an  index  of  all  the  plants  that  grow  here, 
in  the  expectation  that  my  botanical  friends  would  join  in 
working  up  the  floras  of  their  several  States,  so  that  in  about 
ten  years  a  more  general  work  might  be  undertaken."  And  in 
another  place :  "  If  the  botanists  continue  to  proceed  in  the 
way  they  are  going,  in  a  few  years  all  will  be  confusion.  In 
order  to  be  sure,  we  should  confer  with  one  another.  For  this 
purpose  I  have  printed  my  Index  before  publishing  full  de- 
scriptions." A  letter  to  Dr.  Cutler,  of  November  12,  1792, 
goes  more  into  particulars ;  it  reads :  "  You  have  made  the 
beginning  of  a  Flora  of  New  England,  and  all  friends  of 
botany  wish  that  you  would  go  on  and  complete  the  work. 
Let  each  of  our  American  botanists  do  something,  and  the 


GOTTHILF   HEINRICH   ERNST   MUHLENBERG.  65 

wealth  of  America  would  soon  be  recognised.  Michaux  should 
do  South  Carolina  and  Georgia;  Kromsch,  North  Carolina; 
Greenway,  Virginia  and  Maryland ;  Barton,  New  Jersey,  Del- 
aware, and  the  lower  parts  of  Pennsylvania ;  Bartram,  Mar- 
shall, and  Muhlenberg,  each  his  neighbourhood  ;  Mitchell,  New 
York ;  and  you,  with  the  Northern  botanists,  your  States. 
How  much  might  then  be  accomplished !  If,  then,  one  of  our 
younger  associates — Dr.  Barton,  for  instance,  whose  specialty 
it  is — would  combine  the  different  floras  into  one,  how  pleasant 
it  would  be  for  the  botanical  world  !  I  have  written  to  nearly 
all  the  persons  named  above,  and  hope  to  receive  their  concur- 
rence. Let  me  know  your  views  about  it."  Dr.  Cutler  gave 
the  scheme  his  unreserved  approval. 

This  plan  was  not  carried  out.  Instead  of  it,  Andre  Michaux 
worked  the  combined  collections  of  his  eleven  years'  travels  in 
the  United  States,  through  the  French  botanist  Richard,  into  a 
Flora  of  North  America,  and  it  appeared  in  Paris  in  1803,  one 
year  after  the  author's  death  in  Madagascar. 

The  publication  of  this  flora  did  not  change  Muhlenberg's 
view  of  the  necessity  of  comparative  work  in  co-operation,  and 
in  order  to  bring  it  a  step  nearer  he  decided  in  1809  to  write  a 
catalogue  of  the  then  known  native  and  naturalized  plants  of 
North  America  (Catalogus  Plantarum  America  Septentrionalis, 
hue  usque  cognitarum  indigenarum  et  ctcurum),  the  printing  of 
which  was  finished  after  nearly  nine  months  of  work,  at  the  end 
of  July,  1813.  While  Michaux  had  described  about  fifteen 
hundred  flowering  plants  and  ferns,  Muhlenberg  was  able  ten 
years  later  to  exhibit  more  than  double  the  number  of  species, 
and  besides  these  to  add,  from  specimens  mostly  collected  in 
Pennsylvania,  175  mosses,  39  liverworts,  32  algae,  176  lichens, 
and  305  fungi,  in  all  727  species.  The  Composite  comprised  in 
Michaux  193  species,  in  Muhlenberg  410. 

Muhlenberg  conscientiously  named  not  only  the  books 
which  he  had  used  in  the  determination  of  his  collected  plants, 
but  also  the  twenty-eight  correspondents  in  different  parts  of 
the  United  States  who  had  assisted  him  in  his  researches  by 
sending  plants  or  seeds.  The  work  gives,  besides  the  botan- 
ical and  English  names,  only  the  numbers  of  the  several  parts 
of  the  flower,  the  color  of  the  corolla,  the  character  of  the 
fruit,  the  locality,  and  the  time  of  flowering,  all  as  briefly  as 
possible. 


66  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

At  the  same  time  a  complete  description  of  the  plants  grow- 
ing around  Lancaster  had  been  ready  to  print  for  years ;  like- 
wise a  complete  description  of  all  the  other  North  American 
plants  which  Muhlenberg  had  himself  seen  and  arranged  in  his 
herbarium.  These  descriptions  were  consequently  based  en- 
tirely on  his  own  knowledge,  and  had,  therefore,  especial 
value.  Unfortunately,  they  have  not  been  published. 

A  part  of  one  of  these  works,  comprising  the  grasses,  was 
printed  in  1817,  two  years  after  the  author's  death,  under  the 
title  Descriptio  uberior  Graminum  (Fuller  Description  of  Grass- 
es). This  manuscript  was  presented  by  Zaccheus  Collins,  a 
friend  of  Muhlenberg,  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
in  1831. 

The  valuable  herbarium,  for  which  Muhlenberg  collected 
and  sorted  for  a  full  third  of  a  century,  was  bought  by  a  num- 
ber of  his  friends  for  a  little  more  than  five  hundred  dollars, 
and  was  presented  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in 
February,  1818.  It  was  then  in  good  condition,  but  has,  un- 
fortunately, not  been  well  taken  care  of,  and  has  become  so 
decayed  as  to  have  little  if  any  more  than  historical  value. 

In  considering  the  question  of  the  importance  to  science  of 
these  labours  of  a  whole  lifetime,  we  should  think  first  of  the 
greater  clearness  which  they  led  to  in  the  descriptive  botany 
of  North  America.  Although  Muhlenberg  printed  but  little, 
and  although  he  often  lost  the  claim  to  priority  through  being 
anticipated  in  publication  by  less  reserved  botanists,  yet  we 
find  in  Gray's  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the  Northern  United 
States  about  one  hundred  species  and  varieties  which  were  first 
established  as  such  by  him,  and  besides  them  a  nearly  equal 
number  which  were  either  assigned  afterward  to  other  genera, 
or  with  which,  on  the  principle  of  priority  in  publication,  the 
names  given  by  other  botanists  were  retained.  This  is  really 
an  admirable  result,  considering  the  zeal  of  collectors  and 
hunters  before  and  during  Muhlenberg's  time,  and  the  limited 
extent  of  the  field  which  he  was  able  personally  to  examine. 
His  services  have  also  been  freely  recognised  by  later  botanists. 
A  golden-rod  was  given  by  Torrey  and  Gray  the  name  Solidago 
Muhlenbergii  ;  Grisebach  named  a  centaury  Erythr&a  Muhlen- 
bergii ;  a  small  willow  was  called  by  Barratt  Salix  Muhlen- 
bergii;  and  Gray  gave  the  name  Muhlenbergii  to  a  species  of 
reed  or  sedge.  Two  mosses  of  the  genera  Phascum  and 


GOTTHILF    HEINRICH   ERNST   MUHLENBERG.  6/ 

Funaria  were  named  after  Muhlenberg  by  Schwartz ;  two 
lichens  of  the  genera  Umbilicaria  and  Gyrophora  by  Acharius; 
and  a  fungus  of  the  genus  Dothidea  by  Elliott. 

About  half  of  the  plant-names  given  by  Muhlenberg  which 
are  now  recognised  belong  to  the  reeds  and  the  grasses, 
Cyperacea  and  Graminece,  in  the  study  of  which  he  was  sup- 
ported by  Schreber.  One  of  the  first  new  genera  of  grasses 
observed  by  him,  to  which  belong  seven  species  in  the  North- 
ern floral  region  of  the  United  States,  and  a  still  larger  num- 
ber of  other  species  in  the  other  States  and  Territories,  was 
given  the  name  Muhlenbergia  by  Schreber.  At  least  five  spe- 
cies of  this  genus,  which  have  not  become  domiciled  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  are  known  in  Colorado. 

It  is  recorded  by  one  who  knew  him,  in  Sprague's  Annals 
of  the  American  Pulpit,  that  "  in  person  Dr.  Muhlenberg  was 
of  medium  stature,  of  a  florid  complexion,  of  a  robust  frame, 
and  great  physical  strength.  There  are  various  traditions, 
some  of  them  amusing  enough,  illustrative  of  this  latter 
quality.  On  one  occasion  when  a  beggar  had  obtruded  himself 
into  his  study,  and  had  begun  to  take  on  insolent  airs,  the 
doctor  took  him  up  and  removed  him  from  the  premises  with 
perfect  ease,  greatly  to  the  amusement  of  those  who  were  look- 
ing in.  He  was  a  great  pedestrian,  and  often  walked  from 
Lancaster  to  Philadelphia,  a  distance  of  sixty  miles,  without 
suffering  from  fatigue."  His  grandson,  Frederick  A.  Muhlen- 
berg, for  many  years  professor  in  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, gives  the  following  statement  as  to  what  manner  of  man 
he  was : 

"  His  private  journal  is  now  before  me,  and  the  variety  of 
subjects  in  it  which  engaged  his  reflections  is  remarkable,  and 
shows  the  inquiring  character  of  his  mind  and  his  power  of 
accurate  discrimination.  Here  are  found,  for  instance,  care- 
fully prepared  descriptions  of  plants,  birds,  minerals,  or  other 
objects  of  Nature,  which  he  had  met  with  in  his  walks,  and  the 
uses  to  which  they  might  be  applied  for  the  benefit  of  himself 
or  others.  Here  he  gives  his  decision  upon  the  medicinal 
properties  of  plants  or  the  value  of  the  inks  made  out  of  their 
juices,  and  there  records  an  attempt  of  his,  and  a  successful 
one,  as  early  as  the  year  1779,  to  make  molasses  from  corn- 
stalks. In  other  parts  of  the  journal  we  meet  with  observations 
on  the  weather,  such  as  thunderstorms,  dark  days,  remarkable 


68  PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

snows,  and  other  natural  phenomena  ;  and  two  of  such  me- 
teorological memoranda  met  my  eye  in  running  over  the  pages 
of  the  volume,  which  may  be  of  interest,  one  in  reference  to 
the  winter  of  1780,  the  other  to  that  of  1786.  The  former  he 
designates  the  '  cold '  winter,  and  remarks  that  in  February  the 
snow  was  three  feet  deep  where  there  was  no  drift,  and,  where 
drifted,  from  five  to  seven;  and  in  the  other  year  two  feet  in 
depth.  Besides  these  there  were  also  discussions  of  the  bank- 
rupt laws  of  Congress,  several  remarkable  dreams,  articles  in 
opposition  to  the  theatre  and  public  dancing,  poetic  effusions, 
and  pious  meditations. 

"  His  knowledge  of  medicine  was  considerable ;  and  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  prescribing  for  his  people  and  distributing  to 
them  the  medicines  of  the  Halle  Institute,  which  he  regularly 
ordered  to  be  sent  to  him.  In  his  journal  are  given  at  length 
accounts  of  the  diseases  and  treatment  of  the  different  mem- 
bers of  his  own  family  when  visited  with  sickness. 

"  His  habits  of  life  were  simple.  He  was  temperate  in 
eating  and  drinking.  His  wife  always  carved  at  table  and 
supplied  his  plate,  and  he  was  accustomed  to  ask  her  if  he  had 
eaten  a  sufficiency  and  to  submit  to  her  judgment  in  the  mat- 
ter ;  and  a  favourite  dessert  of  his  was  a  roasted  potato,  with 
a  little  butter  and  salt.  When  he  drank  anything  spirituous  he 
usually  mingled  a  wineglass  of  wine  with  a  quart  of  water. 
In  his  dress  he  also  meekly  submitted  to  the  wishes  and  judg- 
ment of  his  wife. 

"  He  was  very  fond  of  music,  and  played  with  taste,  having 
a  preference  for  that  which  was  sad  and  plaintive  rather  than 
lively. 

"  His  early  entrance  upon  the  arduous  duties  of  the  minis- 
try at  seventeen  years  of  age,  together  with  his  subsequent 
intense  studies  in  literature  and  science,  had  a  serious  influence 
in  causing  frequent  attacks  of  vertigo  and  acute  pains  in  his 
head.  One  remarkable  incident  in  his  life,  due  no  doubt  to 
this  protracted  mental  activity,  is  worthy  of  record  for  its  psy- 
chological interest.  About  ten  years  before  his  sudden  death 
from  apoplexy  he  lost,  after  an  attack  of  serious  illness,  all  his 
knowledge,  and  he  began  study  a  second  time  with  the  alphabet, 
syllabication,  and  reading  under  the  instruction  of  his  daugh- 
ter. After  having  thus  learned  to  read  a  second  time,  one  day 


GOTTHILF   HEINRICH   ERNST    MUHLENBERG.  69 

while  his  daughter  was  teaching  him  the  Lord's  Prayer,  all  his 
former  acquisitions,  like  a  sudden  effulgence,  returned  to  him 
in  their  completeness,  and  he  laboured  successfully  in  the  min- 
istry for  the  ten  subsequent  years.  Such  instances  of  disor- 
dered mental  action  are  few  in  number." 

This  review  of  Muhlenberg's  botanical  work  would  not  be 
complete  without  special  mention  of  his  scientific  correspond- 
ence, his  personal  intercourse  with  naturalists,  and  the  honours 
he  received.  Among  his  foreign  correspondents  were  Dille- 
nius,  Hedwig,  Hoffmann,  Persoon,  Pursh,  Smith,  Schopf,  Schre- 
ber,  Sturm,  Willdenow,  William  Aiton,  of  Kew;  Batsch,  the 
mycologist ;  Palisot  de  Beauvoir  in  Paris,  and  Dr.  Thibaud  in 
Montpellier ;  Christian  Ludwig  Schkuhr,  of  Wittenberg,  an 
eminent  cryptogamist ;  Professor  and  Medical  Counsellor  Hein- 
rich  Adolph  Schrader,  of  Gottingen ;  Kurt  Sprengel,  professor 
of  medicine  and  botanist  at  Halle;  and  Prof.  Olof  Swartz,  one 
of  Linnaeus's  most  eminent  pupils.  Among  the  twenty-eight 
home  correspondents  mentioned  by  Muhlenberg  in  the  preface 
to  his  catalogue  are  the  Rev.  Christian  Denke,  of  Nazareth, 
Pa. ;  the  Rev.  Samuel  Kramph,  of  North  Carolina ;  the  Mora- 
vian bishop  Jacob  Van  Vleck,  and  Dr.  Christopher  Miiller,  of 
Harmony,  Pa.  One  of  the  most  valued  was  Dr.  Baldwin,  of 
South  Carolina,  and  Muhlenberg's  letters  to  him  have  been 
published  by  William  Darlington,  in  a  volume  entitled  Bald- 
winiana.  All  or  nearly  all  these  correspondents  were  enter- 
tained by  him  in  his  home  at  Lancaster,  which  was  open  to  all 
students  of  plants,  and  was  usually  visited  by  them  when  they 
came  to  Philadelphia.  Alexander  von  Humboldt  and  Aime 
Bonpland  sought  him  there  on  their  return  from  their  long 
sojourn  in  Spanish  America;  and  Humboldt's  letter  acknowl- 
edging his  hospitality  is  the  last  which  that  master  in  science 
wrote  in  America. 

Learned  societies  and  institutions  likewise  covered  him 
with  their  honours.  The  University  of  Pennsylvania  gave  him 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  in  1786;  Princeton  College,  that 
of  Doctor  of  Divinity  in  1787.  He  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society  on  January  22,  1785,  along 
with  Joseph  Priestley  and  James  Madison.  Of  other  societies 
he  received  diplomas  :  from  the  Imperial  Academy  of  Erlangen, 
1791 ;  the  Society  of  Friends  of  Natural  History,  Berlin,  1798; 
the  Westphalian  Natural  History  Society,  1798;  the  Phyto- 


70  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

graphic  Society  of  Gottingen,  1802;  the  Physical  Society  of 
Gottingen,  1802;  the  Linnsean  Society  of  Philadelphia,  1809; 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  1814;  the 
Society  for  the  Promotion  of  the  Useful  Arts,  Albany,  N.  Y., 
1815 ;  the  Physiographical  Society  of  Lund,  Sweden,  1815 ; 
and  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  April  12,  1815. 

Introducing  the  description  of  a  Muhlenbergia  in  the  second 
volume  of  his  work  on  the  Grasses,  Prof.  Schreber  referred  to 
Dr.  Muhlenberg  as  having,  "  through  the  discovery  of  numer- 
ous new  species  and  in  other  ways,  rendered  immortal  service 
to  the  natural  history  of  North  America,  and  especially  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  plants  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  other  United 
States." 


SAMUEL   LATHAM    MITCHILL. 


SAMUEL  LATHAM   MITCHILL. 

1764-1831. 

THE  name  and  fame  of  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill  have,  in  the 
absence  of  a  complete  biography,  become  to  a  considerable 
extent  a  tradition,  known  to  few  except  students;  yet,  during 
the  first  quarter  of  this  century,  he  was  one  of  the  most  con- 
spicuous figures  in  the  literary  and  scientific  life  of  the  United 
States.  He  is  called  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Francis  "  the  Nestor  of 
American  science,"  and  "  the  pioneer  philosopher  in  the  pro- 
motion of  natural  science  and  medicine  in  America."  He  was 
a  man  of  various  attainments,  and  proved  himself  at  home  in 
many  fields — in  medicine,  science,  letters,  politics,  and  social 
life. 

Samuel  Latham  Mitchill  was  born  in  Hempstead,  Long 
Island,  August  20,  1764,  and  died  in  the  city  of  New  York,  Sep- 
tember 7,  1831.  He  was  the  third  son  of  Robert  Mitchill,  an 
industrious  farmer  and  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and 
was  remarkable  for  his  habits  of  observation  and  reflection. 
His  father  seems  to  have  taken  less  interest  in  his  early  in- 
struction than  his  maternal  uncle,  Dr.  Samuel  Latham,  of  North 
Hempstead,  who  assisted  him  to  obtain  a  good  classical  edu- 
cation. He  afterward  studied  medicine  with  Dr.  Latham; 
then  with  Dr.  Samuel  Bard,  of  New  York ;  and  in  1783  went 
to  complete  his  studies  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  whence 
he  was  graduated  in  1786.  He  there  enjoyed  rare  advantages 
of  intellectual  society,  and  had  among  his  contemporaries  at 
the  university  such  illustrious  men  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh 
and  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar,  Richard  S. 
Kissam,  the  surgeon  ;  and  William  Hammersley,  afterward  a 
professor  in  Columbia  College.  After  graduation,  and  before 
returning  home,  he  made  a  pedestrian  tour  through  a  part 
of  England.  In  1787,  after  his  return  to  America,  he  visited 
Saratoga  Springs  while  it  was  surrounded  by  the  forest,  and 

71 


72  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ascertained  experimentally  that  the  gas  escaping  from  the 
water  was  "  fixed  air,  with  the  power  to  extinguish  flame, 
destroy  the  life  of  breathing  animals,  .etc."  He  is  found  in 
1788  recording  his  walking  with  congenial  companions  "in  the 
very  grand  procession  for  celebrating  the  adoption  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States."  He  began  the  study  of  law 
with  the  Hon.  Robert  Yates,  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  and  was  shortly  afterward  appointed  one  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  treat  with  the  Five  Nations  for  the  cession  of  the 
"  Great  Western  District  "  to  the  State  of  New  York,  He  at- 
tended the  council  at  Fort  Stanwix,  witnessed  the  deed,  and 
received  names  from  the  Oneidas  and  Onondagas. 

In  1790  Dr.  Mitchill  was  chosen  a  representative  from 
Queens  County  in  the  New  York  Legislature.  In  the  next 
year  he  exerted  himself  to  form  the  North  Hempstead  Li- 
brary Association  and  Library.  In  1792  he  was  appointed 
Professor  of  Chemistry,  Natural  History,  and  Philosophy  in 
Columbia  College,  where,  while  dissenting  from  some  of  the 
principles  of  the  French  chemist,  he  introduced,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  United  States,  the  chemical  nomenclature  devised 
by  Lavoisier.  His  dissent  from  Lavoisier  led  to  a  controversy 
with  Dr.  Priestley,  at  the  end  of  which  the  two  disputants  found 
themselves  on  a  footing  of  mutual  esteem  and  warm  personal 
friendship.  He  records  himself  in  1794  as  having  exhibited  at 
full  length,  in  a  printed  essay,  the  actual  state  of  learning  in 
Columbia  College.  At  about  this  time,  too,  he  was  co-operat- 
ing with  Chancellor  Livingston  and  Simeon  De  Witt  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Agriculture, 
Manufactures,  and  the  Useful  Arts,  before  which  he  delivered 
his  first  public  address.  Having  executed  a  commission  from 
this  society  for  that  work,  he  made  a  detailed  report,  in  1796, 
of  geological  and  mineralogical  observations  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson,  for  coal,  etc. — a  performance  which,  he  mentions, 
was  respectfully  quoted  by  Count  Volney.  This  was  the  first 
work  of  the  kind  undertaken  in  the  United  States,  and  the  re- 
port helped  to  secure  a  wide  European  as  well  as  American 
reputation  for  the  author.  Referring  to  it,  Dr.  J.  W.  Francis 
says,  "  He  may  fairly  be  pronounced  the  pioneer  investigator 
of  geological  science  among  us,  preceding  McClure  by  several 
years."  The  report  was  published  in  the  Medical  Repository, 
a  quarterly  magazine  begun  in  1797  by  Dr.  Mitchill,  with  Drs. 


SAMUEL   LATHAM    MITCHILL. 


73 


Edward    Miller   and    Elihu    H.  Smith,  and    continued  by  Dr. 
Mitchill  for  more  than  sixteen  years. 

After  his  marriage,  in  1799,  to  Mrs.  Catharine  Cock,  which 
brought  him  the  enjoyment  of  an  ample  fortune,  Dr.  Mitchill 
was  able  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  scientific  and  public 
occupations.  Among  the  scientific  works  with  which  he  ac- 
credits himself  during  the  few  years  succeeding  this  event  is 
the  publication  of  a  chart  of  chemical  nomenclature,  with  an 
explanatory  memoir,  in  which  he  contended  that  metals  in  their 
malleable  and  ductile  state  are  compounds  of  a  base  with  hydro- 
gen (phlogiston),  as  in  their  calciform  state  they  consist  of  a 
base  with  oxygen  ;  and  that  in  several  there  is  an  intermediate 
condition  in  which  there  is  no  union  either  with  hydrogen  or 
oxygen.  And  he  extended  the  same  doctrine  to  the  greater 
part  of  inflammable  bodies.  In  1802  he  records  a  correspond- 
ence with  Albert  Gallatin,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  on  a 
project  for  illuminating  the  lighthouses  of  the  United  States 
with  inflammable  air.  In  1806  he  wrote  the  introduction  to 
the  American  edition  of  Assalini's  Observations  on  the  Plague, 
Dysentery,  and  Ophthalmy  of  Egypt ;  and  in  the  ensuing  win- 
ter translated  from  the  Latin  Lancisi's  book  on  the  noxious 
exhalations  of  marshes  at  Washington — a  work  which  was 
afterward  printed  in  the  Medical  Repository.  As  a  member 
of  the  Legislature,  he  supported,  in  the  face  of  ridicule  and 
opposition,  the  act  of  1798  giving  Livingston  and  Fulton  the 
exclusive  right  to  navigate  the  waters  of  New  York  by  steam. 
He  performed,  with  Fulton,  in  August,  1807,  the  first  voyage 
in  a  steamboat.  He  was  again  chosen  to  the  Assembly  in  1797 
as  one  of  the  representatives  from  the  city  and  county  of  New 
York  for  a  term  of  service  which  he  marked  as  distinguished 
by  his  introduction  of  a  motion  relative  to  the  fourth  command- 
ment, requiring  citizens  to  labour  on  the  six  days  as  well  as  to 
refrain  from  labour  on  the  seventh  day.  In  1801  he  was  elected 
to  the  national  House  of  Representatives,  as  member  from  the 
district  consisting  of  the  counties  of  Kings  and  Richmond  and 
the  city  and  county  of  New  York.  He  was  appointed  to  the 
Senate  in  1804,  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  resignation  of 
John  Armstrong,  and  after  the  expiration  of  his  term  there,  in 
1809,  served  in  the  House  again  till  1813.  A  bright  picture  of 
his  life  in  Washington  is  given  in  the  letters  written  by  him  to 
his  wife  during  his  term  of  service.  They  are  full  of  the  life, 
6 


74  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

the  politics,  and  the  society  of  the  capital,  and  the  telling  of 
the  incidents  is  made  more  attractive  by  the  writer's  always 
lively  humour. 

The  lines  of  Dr.  Mitchill's  work  in  Congress  are  indicated  by 
various  notes  in  his  letters  and  in  the  record  which  he  has  left 
of  Memorable  Events  and  Occurrences  in  his  life.  During  his 
first  term  he  was  a  member  of  committees  of  the  House  on 
Commerce  and  Manufactures,  the  Naturalization  Laws,  the 
protection  of  American  seamen  and  commerce  against  the 
Tripolitan  corsairs,  Naval  Affairs,  memorials  concerning  per- 
petual motion,  patent  rights,  the  Mint,  and  French  spoliations. 
He  laboured  in  the  Senate  for  the  adoption  of  improved 
quarantine  laws,  "  and  was  strenuous,"  says  Dr.  Francis,  "  to 
lessen  the  duty  on  the  importation  of  rags,  in  order  to  render 
the  manufacture  of  paper  cheaper,  the  better  to  aid  the  diffu- 
sion of  knowledge  by  printing."  In  December,  181 1,  he  brought 
up  for  adoption  by  the  House  of  Representatives  a  report 
favourable  to  the  "  nascent  nations  "  of  Spanish  America,  and 
"  full  of  good  wishes  toward  them  in  their  exertions  to  be- 
come free  and  independent."  In  connection  with  the  War  of 
1812  he  acted  as  a  commissioner  under  the  Navy  Department 
in  constructing  a  floating  battery  or  heavy  vessel  of  war,  to 
defend  the  seacoast  and  harbours  of  the  United  States ;  and  in 
1814  he  was  found  labouring  jointly  with  his  patriotic  neigh- 
bours, "  with  mattock  and  shovel,  in  the  trenches  for  several 
days,  to  erect  fortifications  against  the  enemy." 

National  and  social  matters  did  not  absorb  Dr.  Mitchill's 
attention  in  Washington  to  the  exclusion  of  his  interest  in 
scientific  inquiries.  Curious  speculations  and  remarks  appear 
in  his  letters  about  phenomena  which  came  under  his  obser- 
vation. In  one  letter,  he  wishes  his  wife  to  inform  him 
exactly  at  what  hour  a  certain  storm  began.  "  I  wish  to 
know,"  he  said,  "  exactly  when  the  storm  began  in  New  York, 
as  it  is  connected  with  other  facts  tending  to  a  theory  of  the 
atmospheric  motions  in  winter."  Another  letter,  forwarding  a 
specimen  of  the  Mitchella  repens,  explains  why  no  plant  had 
been  named  after  him.  Prof.  Willdenow,  of  Berlin,  had  in- 
tended to  give  his  name  to  some  plant,  but  found  it  already 
appropriated  by  this  partridge  berry,  which  was  named  by 
Linnaeus  in  honour  of  John  Mitchell,  of  Virginia.  He  was 
more  fortunate,  according  to  Dr.  Francis,  in  the  matter  of 


SAMUEL   LATHAM    MITCHILL. 


75 


fish.  "He  was  the  delight,"  says  this  biographer,  "of  a  meet- 
ing of  naturalists.  The  seed  he  sowed  gave  origin  and  growth 
to  a  mighty  crop  of  those  disciples  of  natural  science.  He  was 
emphatically  our  great  living  ichthyologist.  The  fishermen 
and  fishmongers  were  perpetually  bringing  him  new  specimens. 
They  adopted  his  name  for  our  excellent  fish,  the  striped  bass, 
and  designated  it  the  Perca  Mitchilli" 

He  writes  concerning  a  conversation  he  had  with  Captain 
Lewis,  the  explorer,  about  the  burning  plains  up  the  Missouri, 
where  the  burning  strata  of  coal  underlying  the  plains  pro- 
duced such  intense  heat  as  to  form  lava,  slag,  and,  pumice- 
stone  by  the  same  process  that  forms  those  volcanic  sub- 
stances in  the  burning  mountains  of  other  countries.  Decem- 
ber 30,  1807,  he  congratulates  his  wife  on  the  account  in  one 
of  her  letters  of  the  meteoric  stones  that  fell  to  the  earth  in 
Connecticut,  which  arrived  at  a  most  convenient  time,  having 
preceded  all  the  letters  to  the  Connecticut  delegation,  and 
even  outrun  the  newspapers.  Dr.  Mitchill  also  during  this 
period  visited  Upper  Canada,  and  described  the  mineralogy  of 
Niagara  Falls  ;  wrote  a  history  of  West  Point  and  the  Military 
Academy ;  and  visited  Harper's  Ferry  and  described  the 
geology  and  scenery  of  that  spot,  which  had  been  eulogized 
for  its  sublimity  by  Jefferson  in  his  Notes  on  Virginia.  Dr. 
Mitchill  retired  from  his  professorship  in  Columbia  College 
on  his  election  to  Congress,  in  1801.  In  1807,  when  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  the  City  of  New  York  was 
organized,  he  was  chosen  its  first  Professor  of  Chemistry,  but 
declined  the  position,  preferring  his  public  duties.  In  1808, 
however,  he  accepted  a  professorship  of  Natural  History ;  and 
in  1820,  on  the  reorganization  of  the  faculty,  became  Professor 
of  Botany  and  Materia  Medica.  Difficulties  occurred  with  the 
Board  of  Trustees  in  1828,  and  the  whole  faculty  of  the  college 
resigned.  Among  other  works  for  the  advancement  of  science 
and  learning  mentioned  in  his  record  are  his  action  with  Drs. 
Hosack  and  Hugh  Williamson  in  laying  the  foundation  of  a 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  in  New  York,  in  1815  ;  the 
reading  to  the  society  of  a  narrative  of  the  earthquakes  of  the 
United  States  and  in  foreign  parts,  during  1811,  1812,  and 
1813;  co-operation  in  a  petition  to  the  Common  Council  of 
New  York  for  the  grant  of  the  building  in  the  North  Park  for 
the  purposes  of  Literature,  Science,  and  Arts ;  the  delivery,  in 


76  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

connection  with  a  curious  case  by  which  the  town  was  stirred, 
of  a  public  lecture  on  the  Somnium,  or  dream,  as  a  state  dif- 
ferent both  from  wakefulness  and  sleep ;  an  excursion  with 
friends  to  the  region  watered  by  the  Wallkill,  where  the  party 
disinterred  a  mammoth ;  participation  in  an  excursion  to  the 
Neversink  Hills,  near  Sandy  Hook,-where  a  dangerous  mistake 
in  their  altitude,  which  had  been  supposed  to  be  six  hundred 
feet,  was  corrected,  and  the  real  height  was  found  to  be  only 
half  as  great,  or  three  hundred  feet ;  acting  as  vice-president 
of  the  District  Convention  which  met  at  Philadelphia  for  pre- 
paring a  National  Pharmacopoeia ;  and  co-operation  with  Sam- 
uel Wood  and  Garrett  K.  Lawrence  in  recommending  the 
willow-leaved  meadow-sweet  (Spircea  salicifolid)  "  as  an  admi- 
rable article  for  refreshment  and  health,  and  as  a  substitute 
for  the  tea  of  China."  A  description  and  classification  of  one 
hundred  and  sixty-six  species  of  fish,  chiefly  found  in  the  fresh 
and  salt  waters  adjacent  to  the  city  of  New  York,  which  he 
offered  to  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  at  one  of  its 
earlier  meetings,  was  the  nucleus  of  what  is  regarded  as  his 
chief  work.  He  mentions  in  his  record  more  than  forty  addi- 
tional species  described  in  Bigelow  and  Holly's  Magazine,  and 
several  more  in  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia.  An  elaborate  History  of  the  Botanical  Writers 
of  America  by  him  is  to  be  found  in  the  collections  of  the 
New  York  Historical  Society.  Of  his  literary  and  scientific 
work  as  a  whole,  in  fact,  it  is  well  said  in  the  Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Literature  that  numerous  papers  by  him  are  included 
in  the  Transactions  of  the  many  learned  societies  of  Europe 
and  America  of  which  he  was  a  member ;  and  he  was  often 
called  upon,  at  the  anniversaries  of  the  societies  of  his  own 
city,  to  appear  as  their  orator.  "  His  multifarious  productions 
are  consequently  scattered  over  a  number  of  publications  and 
collections  of  pamphlets,  and  are  somewhat  overshadowed  by 
the  reputation  of  the  learned  bodies  with  which  they  are  con- 
nected. They  have  fallen,  to  some  extent,  into  an  unmerited 
oblivion."  He  had  committed  his  manuscripts  to  his  brother- 
in-law,  the  late  Dr.  Samuel  Akerly,  as  the  friend  most  compe- 
tent to  write  his  biography,  and  the  work  was  begun,  when 
the  papers  were  destroyed  by  the  burning  of  the  house  in 
which  they  were  deposited.  Had  Dr.  Akerly  not  been  thus 
prevented  from  completing  this  work,  and  had  he  been  able  to 


SAMUEL   LATHAM    MITCHILL.  jj 

present  Dr.  Mitchill's  life  and  writings  in  substantial  form,  the 
subject  of  our  sketch  would  doubtless  have  received  the  credit 
to  which  he  was  entitled,  and  have  been  made  to  appear  as 
one  of  the  most  vigorous  leaders  of  early  American  science. 

The  scientific  items  in  Dr.  Mitchill's  record  are  continued 
with  mention  of  the  introductory  lecture  to  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians, etc.,  on  the  life  and  writings  of  their  late  president, 
Samuel  Bard,  1821  ;  a  philosophical  discourse  in  St.  Stephen's 
Chapel,  Bowery,  to  the  class  formed  in  that  congregation  for 
cultivating  the  natural  and  physical  sciences,  1822;  a  discourse 
on  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Linnaeus,  at  Prince's  Botanical 
Gardens,  Flushing,  on  the  anniversary  of  the  Swede's  birth- 
day in  1823;  and  the  publication  of  a  catalogue  of  the  geo- 
logical articles  and  organic  remains  which  he  presented  to  the 
museum  of  the  Lyceum.  In  1823  he  appears  as  performing, 
after  the  Venetian  example,  on  an  invitation  from  Albany  and 
a  mission  from  New  York,  the  ceremony  of  marrying  the  Lakes 
to  the  Ocean,  at  Albany,  "  on  the  day  of  the  unprecedented 
gathering  of  the  people  to  witness  the  scene  of  connecting  the 
Western  and  Northern  Canals  with  the  Hudson  " ;  and  again, 
two  years  afterward,  as  a  member  of  a  committee  for  celebrat- 
ing the  completion  of  the  Western  Canal,  when,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Sandy  Hook,  he  pronounced  an  address  "  on  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  to  the  estate  of  her  spouse  the 
Lord  of  the  Ocean."  This,  according  to  Dr.  Francis,  was  the 
proudest  day  of  his  life.  He  also  acted  on  a  committee,  in 
1824,  to  receive  funds  in  aid  of  the  efforts  of  the  Greeks  to 
achieve  their  independence. 

Dr.  Francis  says,  summing  up  his  work,  and  quoting  at 
least  a  part  of  the  estimate  from  the  book,  Old  New  York, 
that  "  the  universal  praise  which  Dr.  Mitchill  enjoyed  in  almost 
every  part  of  the  globe  where  science  is  cultivated,  during  a 
long  life,  is  demonstrative  that  his  merits  were  of  a  high  order. 
.  .  .  His  knowledge  was  diversified  and  extensive,  if  not  pro- 
found. His  first  scientific  paper  was  an  essay  on  Evaporation. 
His  mineralogical  survey  of  New  York,  in  1797,  gave  Volney 
many  hints ;  his  analysis  of  the  Saratoga  waters  enhanced  the 
importance  of  those  mineral  springs.  .  .  .  His  ingenious  theory 
of  the  doctrine  of  septon  and  septic  acid  gave  origin  to  many 
papers  and  impulse  to  Sir  Humphry  Davy's  vast  discoveries; 
his  doctrines  on  pestilence  awakened  inquiry  from  every  class 


78  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

of  observers  throughout  the  Union  ;  his  expositions  of  a  theory 
of  the  earth  and  solar  system  captivated  minds  of  the  highest 
qualities.  His  speculations  on  the  phosphorescence  of  the  wa- 
ters of  the  ocean,  on  the  fecundity  of  fish,  on  the  decortication 
of  fruit  trees,  on  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  shark, 
swelled  the  mystery  of  his  diversified  knowledge.  .  .  .  His 
researches  on  the  ethnological  characteristics  of  the  red  men  of 
America  betrayed  the  benevolence  of  his  nature  and  his  gen- 
erous spirit.  .  .  .  He  increased  our  knowledge  of  the  vegeta- 
ble materia  medica  of  the  United  States,  and  wrote  largely 
on  the  subject.  .  .  .  He  largely  seconded  the  views  of  Judge 
Peters  on  gypsum  as  a  fertilizer.  .  .  .  His  letters  to  Tilloch, 
of  London,  on  the  progress  of  his  mind  in  the  investigation 
of  septic  acid — oxygenated  azote — is  curious  as  a  physiologi- 
cal document.  ...  He  was  associated  with  Griscom,  Eddy, 
Golden,  Gerard,  and  Wood  in  the  establishment  of  the  Institu- 
tion for  the  Deaf  and  Dumb  ;  and,  with  Eddy  and  Hosack, 
may  be  classed  with  the  first  in  this  city,  in  respect  to  time, 
who  held  converse  with  the  afflicted  mute  by  means  of  signs." 
It  would  be  difficult,  says  an  article  in  Harper's  Magazine 
for  April,  1879,  for  those  who  never  saw  Dr.  Mitchill,  "to  con- 
ceive the  deference  paid  to  his  learning  and  judgment.  His 
knowledge  of  the  physical  sciences,  his  varied  and  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  classical  literature,  both  ancient  and  modern, 
his  attainments  in  history  and  political  science,  his  practical 
acquaintance  with  public  affairs,  and  his  remarkable  affinity 
with  the  common  and  useful  arts,  caused  him  to  be  looked  upon 
as  a  fountain  of  learning  always  ready  to  pour  forth  abun- 
dant streams  of  knowledge  to  every  thirsty  applicant.  A  witty 
friend  once  said  of  him,  '  Tap  the  doctor  at  any  time,  he  will 
flow.'  Accordingly,  the  merits  of  all  inventions,  discoveries,  pro- 
jects, arts,  sciences,  literary  subjects  and  schemes,  new  books 
and  publications,  professional  cases,  acts  of  charity  or  public 
spirit,  and  a  multitude  of  other  things,  used  to  be  submitted  to 
his  critical  opinion.  If  he  had  not  been  one  of  the  most  polite 
and  amiable  of  men,  he  could  hardly  have  borne  the  demands 
thus  made  upon  his  time  and  patience."  Dr.  Francis  relates 
that,  being  present  at  his  funeral,  he  stayed  till  all  but  the  sex- 
ton had  gone,  and  then  asked,  unrecognised  by  him,  whom  he 
had  just  buried.  "  A  great  character,"  the  man  answered,  "  one 
who  knew  all  things  on  the  earth  and  in  the  waters  of  the  great 


SAMUEL   LATHAM    MITCHILL.  79 

deep."  Dr.  Francis  is  also  authority  for  tfre  story  that  when 
the  purchase  of  the  Elgin  Botanic  Garden  by  the  constituted 
authorities  was  argued  at  the  Capitol,  "  he  won  the  attention 
of  the  members  by  a  speech  of  several  hours'  length,  in  which 
he  gave  a  history  of  gardens  and  the  necessity  for  them.  .  .  . 
With  his  botanical  Latinity  occasionally  interspersed,  he  prob- 
ably appeared  more  learned  than  ever.  Van  Horn,  a  Western 
member,  was  dumfounded  at  the  Linnsean  phraseology,  and 
declared  such  knowledge  to  be  too  deep  for  human  powers  to 
fathom." 

As  described  by  Dr.  Francis,  Dr.  Mitchill's  appearance  be- 
fore his  class  in  the  instruction  room  was  that  of  an  earnest 
instructor,  ready  to  impart  the  stores  of  his  accumulated  wis- 
dom for  the  benefit  of  his  pupils,  while  his  oral  disquisitions 
were  perpetually  enlivened  with  novel  and  ingenious  observa- 
tions. Chemistry,  which  first  engaged  his  capacious  mind,  was 
rendered  the  more  captivating  by  his  endeavours  to  improve 
the  nomenclature  of  the  French  savants,  and  to  render  the 
science  subservient  to  the  useful  purposes  of  agriculture,  art, 
and  hygiene.  In  treating  of  the  materia  medica,  he  delighted  to 
dwell  on  the  riches  of  our  native  products  for  the  art  of  heal- 
ing, and  he  sustained  an  enormous  correspondence  throughout 
the  land,  in  order  to  add  to  his  own  practical  observations  the 
experience  of  the  competent,  the  better  to  prefer  the  claims  of 
our  indigenous  products. 

Many  of  Dr.  MitchiU's  scientific  papers  were  published  in 
the  London  Philosophical  Magazine,  New  York  Medical  Re- 
pository, American  Medical  and  Philosophical  Register,  New 
York  Medical  and  Physical  Journal,  American  Mineralogical 
Journal,  and  Transactions  of  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Phil- 
adelphia ;  and  he  supplied  several  other  periodicals,  both  abroad 
and  at  home,  with  the  results  of  his  cogitations. 

Dr.  Mitchill  was  the  author  of  a  few  verses,  and  of  prose 
essays  or  addresses  of  an  order  of  humorous  trifling,  much 
affected  at  the  time,  of  which  the  lighter  works  of  Irving  and 
Paulding  furnish  the  most  conspicuous  examples,  and  with 
which  Halleck's  verses  are  in  sympathy.  One  of  his  favourite 
topics  was  a  proposition  to  give  a  new  name — Fredon  or  Fre- 
donia — to  the  United  States,  after  which  the  people  should  be 
called  Fredes  or  Fredonians,  and  their  relations  Fredish  or  Fre- 
donian.  The  subject  was  taken  up  and  discussed  in  the 


go  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

New  York  Historical   Society,  but  has  long  since  been  for- 
gotten. 

His  social  and  domestic  character,  according  to  the  writer 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  was  unusually  amiable  and  attractive, 
and  marked  by  many  amusing  peculiarities.  He  had  great 
fondness  for  young  people,  and  a  rare  power  of  inspiring  them 
with  the  love  of  knowledge.  His  home  was  pleasant  and  un- 
pretending, "  and  the  numerous  celebrities  who  used  to  resort 
to  his  salon  were  entertained  with  cordial  but  simple  hospi- 
tality." His  house  was  a  perfect  museum  of  curiosities,  and 
Mrs.  Mitchill  used  to  be  troubled  by  the  disorder  they  occa- 
sioned. As  pertinent  to  this  nuisance,  the  story  of  the  ant- 
eater's  skin  was  told.  At  first  the  skin  was  an  object  of  great 
interest.  Then  it  became  dingy  and  dusty,  and  was  remanded 
to  the  garret.  In  two  or  three  years  more  it  became  old  and 
motheaten,  and  Mrs.  Mitchill  and  the  servant,  not  wishing  to 
worry  the  doctor,  had  it  secretly  carried  off  and  thrown  into 
the  street.  Dr.  Mitchill,  taking  his  regular  walk  the  next 
morning,  came  upon  a  group  of  boys  curiously  looking  at  some 
unusual  object,  which  proved  to  be  the  ant-eater's  skin.  He 
joined  them,  and,  after  giving  them  a  full  scientific  lecture  on 
the  ant-eater,  said  he  had  a  skin  like  this  one  at  home,  and 
would  be  glad  to  have  another — and  bought  it  from  them  for 
fifty  cents.  No  further  attempts  were  made  to  get  rid  of  it. 


m 


BENJAMIN   SMITH   BABTON. 


BENJAMIN  SMITH   BARTON. 

1766-1815. 

OF  the  three  professions  formerly  distinguished  as  "  learned," 
that  of  medicine  is  the  only  one  connected  with  natural  sci- 
ence. Hence  it  is  not  surprising  that,  in  the  times  when  scien- 
tific research  could  seldom  be  pursued  except  as  an  avocation, 
it  was  frequently  joined  to  his  vocation  by  the  physician.  The 
history  of  medicine  in  the  Old  World  is  adorned  with  the 
names  of  many  profound  students  of  Nature,  and  in  America 
the  name  of  Dr.  Barton  stands  at  the  head  of  a  considerable 
list  of  eminent  investigators  who  either  followed  or  at  least 
entered  upon  the  medical  profession. 

Benjamin  Smith  Barton  was  one  of  the  younger  children 
of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Barton,  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  and  was 
born  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  February  10,  1766.  His  mother  was 
a  sister  of  David  Rittenhouse,  the  astronomer.  He  received, 
therefore,  a  double  inheritance  of  intellectual  ability,  but  the 
benefits  of  parental  care  and  training  were  lost  to  him  at  an 
early  age.  His  mother  died  when  he  was  eight  years  old,  and 
his  father  when  he  was  fourteen.  Early  in  the  fall  of  1778  Mr. 
Thomas  Barton  had  left  Pennsylvania,  intending  to  go  to 
Europe,  but  was  taken  sick  before  he  could  conveniently  set 
sail,  and  died  without  returning  to  his  home,  May  25,  1780,  at 
the  age  of  fifty  years. 

Before  leaving  Lancaster  Mr.  Barton  had  placed  his  younger 
children  in  the  care  of  a  friend  in  the  country  near  by,  where 
they  remained  until  after  their  father's  death.  During  this 
period  young  Benjamin  devoted  much  of  his  time  to  reading, 
showing  considerable  fondness  for  the  subject  of  civil  history. 
Being  a  studious  boy,  he  naturally  took  less  interest  than  boys 
generally  do  in  athletic  sports.  His  predilection  for  natural 
history,  especially  for  botany,  appeared  early,  and  very  likely 
had  received  some  encouragement  from  his  father,  who  is 

81 


82  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

known  to  have  been  a  student  of  Nature.  In  a  note  to  his 
Observations  on  the  Desiderata  of  Natural  History  Dr.  Barton 
speaks  of  the  "  fine  collection  of  North  American  minerals, 
which  was  made  by  my  father  near  forty  years  ago,  at  a  time 
when  he  paid  more  attention  to  this  part  of  natural  history 
than,  so  far  as  I  know,  any  other  person  in  the  (then)  colo- 
nies." It  appears  also  that  the  Rev.  Thomas  Barton  was  a 
member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  corre- 
sponded with  Linnaeus  on  botanical  subjects. 

Young  Benjamin  early  displayed  a  notable  talent  for  draw- 
ing, and  afterward  became  also  remarkably  skilful  in  etch- 
ing. His  artistic  ability  was  of  great  service  to  him  in  sketch- 
ing objects  of  Nature  and  in  criticising  the  illustrations  pre- 
pared by  others  for  his  books.  He  is  said  to  have  maintained 
that  "  no  man  could  become  a  nice,  discriminating,  and  eminent 
botanist  without  possessing  that  acumen  in  perception  of  pro- 
portion, colour,  harmony  of  design,  and  obscure  differences  in 
the  objects  of  the  vegetable  world  which  alone  belong  to  the 
eye  of  a  painter."  He  insisted  on  strict  accuracy  in  details 
that  even  most  careful  naturalists  would  disregard.  To  men- 
tion an  extreme  instance  of  his  exactness,  he  had  every  pro- 
tuberance on  the  back,  tail,  and  legs  of  a  horned  lizard  counted, 
and  required  the  precise  number  found  to  be  represented  in  the 
drawing  made  for  him. 

In  the  spring  of  1780  Benjamin,  with  one  of  his  brothers, 
was  placed  in  an  academy  at  York,  Pa.,  where  he  remained 
nearly  two  years,  pursuing  a  course  of  classical  study.  When 
he  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  his  elder  brother,  who  was  living 
in  Philadelphia,  took  him  into  his  family,  where  he  remained 
about  four  years.  During  this  period  he  attended  for  a  time 
the  College  of  Philadelphia,  and  afterward,  at  the  beginning 
of  his  eighteenth  year,  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  under 
Dr.  William  Shippen. 

In  the  summer  of  1785  he  accompanied  the  commission,  of 
which  his  uncle,  Mr.  Rittenhouse,  was  a  member,  that  was  en- 
gaged in  running  the  western  boundary  line  of  Pennsylvania. 
Young  Barton  was  absent  from  Philadelphia  five  months,  and 
it  was  on  this  expedition  that  he  gained  his  first  acquaintance 
with  the  Indians  and  began  his  researches  into  their  medicines 
and  pathology,  their  general  customs  and  history,  which  re- 
ceived a  share  of  his  attention  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 


BENJAMIN    SMITH    BARTON.  83 

In  order  to  obtain  a  thorough  medical  training  it  was  at 
that  time  necessary  to  go  abroad.  Accordingly,  young  Barton 
repaired  to  Edinburgh  in  the  autumn  of  1786,  where  he  studied 
for  two  years,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  months  spent  in 
London.  Having  become  a  member  of  the  Royal  Medical 
Society  at  Edinburgh,  he  won  the  Harveian  prize  of  that  asso- 
ciation for  a  dissertation  on  the  Hyoscyamus  niger  of  Linnaeus 
(black  henbane).  Barton's  first  book  was  issued  while  he  was 
in  London,  in  the  early  part  of  1787.  It  was  a  little  pamphlet, 
entitled  Observations  on  some  Parts  of  Natural  History :  to 
which  is  prefixed  an  Account  of  some  Considerable  Vestiges  of 
an  Ancient  Date,  which  have  been  Discovered  in  Different 
Parts  of  North  America.  Considering  his  youth — he  was  only 
twenty-one  years  of  age — and  the  fact  that  he  was  afflicted 
with  ill  health  when  he  wrote  it,  this  production  is  very  cred- 
itable;  but  it  contained  some  ill-founded  theories  and  other 
crudities  that  he  readily  and  candidly  acknowledged  only  a 
few  months  later.  For  a  number  of  reasons — among  them 
the  failure  of  two  professors  to  show  him  courtesies  that  he 
had  reason  to  expect — he  left  Edinburgh  and  took  his  degree 
at  Gottingen,  returning  to  America  toward  the  close  of  the 
year  1789.  He  began  to  practise  his  profession  in  Philadel- 
phia, where  his  knowledge  of  science  soon  caused  him  to  be 
looked  upon  as  one  of  the  rising  young  men  of  the  day. 

The  trustees  of  the  College  of  Philadelphia  having  insti- 
tuted a  professorship  of  natural  history  and  botany,  appointed 
Dr.  Barton,  then  only  twenty-four  years  of  age,  to  the  chair. 
This  appointment  was  confirmed  in  the  following  year,  when 
the  college  united  with  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and 
was  held  by  him  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Dr.  Barton  thus  be- 
came the  first  instructor  in  natural  history  in  Philadelphia,  and 
probably  was  the  first  in  any  American  college.  Five  years 
later  the  professorship  of  materia  medica  in  the  University  be- 
came vacant,  and  this  chair  also  was  assigned  to  Dr.  Barton 
and  was  held  by  him  until  he  succeeded  to  that  of  Dr.  Rush. 
On  January  28,  1798,  he  received  an  appointment  as  one  of  the 
physicians  of  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  which  position  he  held 
for  the  rest  of  his  life.  Dr.  Barton  was  a  man  of  high  ambi- 
tion, and  being  deeply  impressed  by  the  well-deserved  fame  of 
Prof.  Rush,  spared  no  exertions  to  equal  it.  When  the  latter 
died,  he  very  naturally  desired  to  obtain  his  professorship,  and 


84  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

his  application  was  followed  in  a  few  months  by  his  appoint- 
ment. 

Dr.  Barton  had  been  from  early  life  subject  to  haemorrhages 
and  to  attacks  of  gout — his  period  of  illness  while  a  student  at 
Edinburgh  was  due  to  these  causes — and  he  had  further  weak- 
ened his  health  by  too  great  application  to  his  scientific  and 
professional  labours.  He  had  sustained  a  severe  haemorrhage 
just  before  undertaking  the  labour  of  preparing  for  his  new 
position.  He  had  delivered  but  two  courses  of  lectures  on  the 
practice  of  medicine  when  his  increasing  ill  health  decided  him 
to  try  the  effect  of  a  sea  voyage.  He  accordingly  sailed  for 
France  in  the  spring  of  1815,  and  returned  in  November  of  that 
year,  but  without  gaining  the  benefit  hoped  for.  Hydrothorax 
came  on  soon  after  he  landed  in  New  York,  and  it  was  three 
weeks  before  he  was  able  to  reach  home.  His  condition  be- 
came rapidly  worse,  and  on  the  morning  of  December  19,  1815, 
he  was  found  dead  in  bed. 

Only  three  days  before  his  death  he  wrote  a  memoir  on  a 
genus  of  plants  which  had  been  named  in  honour  of  him,  and 
requested  his  nephew,  Dr.  W.  P.  C.  Barton,  to  make  a  drawing 
to  accompany  it.  The  latter  did  so,  and  read  the  memoir  at 
the  next  meeting  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  Dr. 
Barton  was  elected  to  this  society  January  16,  1789,  before  his 
return  from  his  medical  studies  abroad,  and  had  been  one  of  its 
vice-presidents  since  January  i,  1802.  The  printed  Transac- 
tions of  the  Society  afford  abundant  evidence  of  his  activity  as 
a  member  and  as  a  man  of  science.  For  three  years  in  succes- 
sion, beginning  with  1797,  he  was  chosen  to  deliver  the  annual 
oration. 

In  his  youth  Dr.  Barton  had  suffered  the  discomforts  and 
hindrances  of  poverty  and  the  persecutions  of  those  who  bore 
him  ill  will.  But  it  was  not  many  years  before  the  income 
from  his  lectures  and  his  books  had  lifted  him  above  the  influ- 
ence of  want. 

Being  prevented  by  his  professional  engagements  from 
making  explorations  in  search  of  plants  and  other  objects  of 
natural  history,  he  employed  others  to  collect  for  him,  advanc- 
ing his  favourite  sciences  by  this  means.  Frederick  Pursh,  in 
his  Flora  America  Septentrionalis  (London,  1814),  describes  an 
excursion  that  he  was  enabled  to  take  by  the  aid  of  Prof. 
Barton.  Starting  in  the  beginning  of  1805,  he  went  along  the 


BENJAMIN   SMITH   BARTON.  35 

mountain  chain  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  and  returned 
through  the  coast  lands,  reaching  Philadelphia  late  in  the 
autumn.  Similar  assistance  was  extended  to  Thomas  Nuttall, 
"whose  zeal  and  services,"  to  use  the  words  of  Dr.  Barton, 
"  have  contributed  essentially  to  extend  our  knowledge  of  the 
northwestern  and  western  flora  of  North  America,  and  to 
whom  the  work  of  Frederick  Pursh  is  under  infinite  obliga- 
tions." Pursh  himself  gives  due  credit  for  Nuttall's  contribu- 
tions. A  genus  of  plants  (resembling  cactus),  first  described 
by  them,  was  named  Bartonia^  in  honour  of  "  their  mutual 
friend  Dr.  B.  S.  Barton."  In  a  paper  written  by  Dr.  Barton,  a 
few  days  before  his  death,  he  says  of  Nuttall : 

"I  became  acquainted  with  this  young  Englishman  in  Phila- 
delphia several  years  ago ;  and  observing  in  him  an  ardent 
attachment  to  and  some  knowledge  of  botany,  I  omitted  no 
opportunity  of  fostering  his  zeal,  and  of  endeavouring  to  ex- 
tend his  knowledge.  He  had  constant  access  to  my  house,  and 
the  benefit  of  my  botanical  books. 

"In  1810  I  proposed  to  Mr.  Nuttall  the  undertaking  of  an 
expedition  entirely  at  my  own  expense  and  under  my  immedi- 
ate direction,  to  explore  the  botany,  etc.,  of  the  northern  and 
northwestern  parts  of  the  United  States  and  the  adjoining 
British  territories."  Dr.  Barton  further  relates  that  Nuttall  set 
out  on  this  journey  in  April,  1810,  but  he  deviated  from  the 
route  which  had  been  pointed  out  to  him,  having  been  pre- 
vailed upon  to  ascend  the  Missouri  with  other  travellers,  whose 
objects  were  principally  traffic.  Returning,  he  reached  St. 
Louis  in  the  autumn  of  1811.  "In  the  latter  end  of  the  year 
1811,  Mr.  Nuttall  returned  to  England  by  the  way  of  New  Or- 
leans. Previously  to  his  departure  he  transmitted  to  me  a 
number  of  the  dried  specimens  and  seeds  which  he  had  col- 
lected." It  was  on  this  trip  that  Nuttall  found  two  species  of 
the  genus  that  he  named  Bartoniay  descriptions  and  specimens 
of  which  he  furnished  to  his  patron. 

Among  the  early  printed  works  of  Dr.  Barton  was  a  Memoir 
concerning  the  Fascinating  Faculty  which  has  been  ascribed 
to  the  Rattlesnake  and  other  North  American  Serpents,  pub- 
lished in  1796.  He  issued  a  supplement  to  this  memoir  four 
years  later,  and  a  new  edition  in  1814.  The  original  paper  had 
been  read  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  He  also 
undertook  a  work  on  the  materia  medica  of  the  United  States, 


86  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

issuing  an  opening  part  in  1798,  a  second  part  in  1804,  and  an 
edition  of  the  two  combined  in  1810.  His  most  important 
publication  was  his  Elements  of  Botany,  a  work  of  508  pages, 
octavo,  illustrated  with  thirty  plates,  which  first  appeared  in 
two  volumes  in  1803.  A  second  edition  of  the  first  volume  was 
issued  in  1812,  and  of  the  second  volume  in  1814,  with  forty 
plates.  After  the  author's  death,  Dr.  William  P.  C.  Barton  pub- 
lished, in  1836,  a  revised  edition  in  one  volume,  condensed  by 
omitting  the  quotations  from  Latin  and  English  poets,  certain 
tabular  views  that  had  become  antiquated,  and  the  index.  To 
this  edition  is  prefixed  a  biographical  sketch,  prepared  by  Dr. 
W.  P.  C.  Barton  at  the  request  of  the  Philadelphia  Medical  Soci- 
ety, of  which  Dr.  B.  S.  Barton  had  been  president  from  Febru- 
ary, 1809,  till  he  died,  and  read  before  that  society  February 
24, 1816.  The  Elements  of  Botany  was  republished  in  London, 
and  was  translated  into  Russian. 

Another  considerable  work  was  his  New  Views  of  the  Origin 
of  the  Tribes  and  Nations  of  America,  which  appeared  in  1798. 
Other  subjects  on  which  he  published  more  or  less  fully  were 
the  natural  history  of  Pennsylvania,  the  disease  of  goitre,  the 
generation  of  the  opossum,  the  principal  desiderata  in  natural 
history  (read  before  the  Philadelphia  Linnsean  Society),  Siren 
lacertina,  the  hellbender,  the  bite  of  the  rattlesnake,  the  honey- 
bee, the  jerboa,  and  the  stimulant  effects  of  camphor  upon 
vegetables.  He  issued  also  the  first  part,  sixty-four  pages,  of  a 
work  on  paleontology,  entitled  Archczologia  Americana  Telluris 
Collectanea  et  Specimina.  In  the  preface  to  this  fragment  he 
says,  "  I  at  one  time,  indeed  for  some  years  together,  flattered 
myself  that  I  should  have  found  leisure  to  have  devoted  a 
considerable  portion  of  my  life  to  the  study  of  organic  geol- 
ogy," but  adds  that  his  recent  succession  to  the  chair  of  Dr. 
Rush  would  prevent  any  extensive  or  systematic  attention  to 
this  subject.  An  ardent  thirst  for  literary  fame,  which  was 
present  in  Prof.  Barton  throughout  his  life,  made  him  an  inde- 
fatigable student  and  writer.  Several  ambitious  undertakings 
were  left  unfinished  by  him.  The  following  three  papers  that 
he  had  read  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society  re- 
mained unpublished  at  his  death :  a  eulogy  on  Dr.  Priestley, 
with  whom  Dr.  Barton  had  been  acquainted ;  a  geographical 
view  of  the  trees  and  shrubs  of  North  America  ;  and  a  mem- 
oir (which  gained  the  Magellanic  premium),  concerning  a  con- 


BENJAMIN   SMITH   BARTON.  87 

siderable  number  of  pernicious  insects  of  the  United  States. 
Prof.  E.  A.  W.  Zimmerman,  of  Brunswick,  translated  into  Ger- 
man and  published  the  memoir  on  the  fascinating  faculty  of 
serpents  and  that  on  the  bite  of  the  rattlesnake. 

In  1797  Dr.  Barton  married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Edward 
Pennington,  of  Philadelphia,  who,  with  their  only  children,  a 
son  and  a  daughter,  survived  him.  He  named  his  son  after 
Mr.  Thomas  Pennant,  an  English  naturalist  and  author  of 
Arctic  Zoology,  with  whom  he  became  acquainted  while  a 
medical  student. 

Dr.  Barton  was  extremely  cautious  about  accepting  human 
testimony  in  matters  of  science,  and  in  one  of  his  publications 
he  declares  that  "credulity  is  the  most  injurious  feature  in  the 
character  of  the  naturalist  as  well  as  that  of  the  historian. 
Its  influence  in  one  individual  is  often  felt  and  propagated 
through  many  ages.  Unfortunately,  too,  it  has  been  the  vice 
of  naturalists,  or  those  who  have  touched  on  questions  rela- 
tive to  natural  history." 

In  a  general  description  of  Prof.  Barton  his  nephew 
says :  "  As  a  medical  teacher  he  was  eloquent,  instructive, 
and  when  occasion  called  for  it  quite  pathetic.  His  voice 
was  good,  though  attenuated,  penetrating,  and  sometimes 
rather  sharp — his  enunciation  clear  and  distinct — his  pro- 
nunciation constrained,  and  his  emphasis,  owing  to  his 
remarkable  kind  of  punctuation,  and  a  desire  to  be  perspicu- 
ously understood,  was  studied,  forced,  and  often  inappropri- 
ate. In  his  lectures  his  diction  was  cacophonous  and  un- 
pleasant. 

"  As  a  writer  he  is  ingenious,  rich  in  facts,  profound  in  re- 
search, and  always  abounding  in  useful  information.  He 
wanted,  however,  in  a  great  degree,  a  talent  for  generalizing 
Hence  his  various  works  are  characterized  by  an  egregious 
want  of  method  or  perspicuous  arrangement.  His  style,  it 
must  be  confessed,  is  always  diffuse,  inelegant,  and  frequently 
tautological.  As  he  never  corrected  what  he  once  wrote,  or 
at  least  but  rarely,  these  defects  in  his  composition  were  the 
natural  consequences  of  his  vehemence  in  writing.  His  punc- 
tuation is  truly  remarkable,  and,  for  a  man  of  his  discernment 
and  extensive  reading,  singularly  incorrect. 

"As  a  physician,  he  discovered  a  mind  quick  in  discriminat- 
ing disease,  skilful  in  the  application  of  appropriate  remedies, 


88  PIONEERS    OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

though  he  certainly  was  a  very  cautious  if  not  timid  practi- 
tioner. No  man  read  more  extensively  on  the  subject  of  dis- 
eases— in  fact  he  was  deeply  versed  in  pathological  knowledge 
derived  from  book  As,  however,  his  medical  practice  was 
never  very  extensive,  his  practical  observations  delivered  in 
his  lectures  were  strikingly  marked  with  the  evidences  of 
overweening  caution.  Hence  he  recommended  to  his  pu- 
pils, and  always  employed  himself,  unusually  small  doses 
of  medicine.  He  was,  however,  in  the  main,  an  observ- 
ing and  intelligent  practitioner,  and  was  remarkably  as- 
siduous in  his  attentions  and  soothing  in  his  behaviour  to 
his  patients. 

"  In  figure  he  was  tall  and  exceedingly  well  formed ;  in 
middle  life  he  might  be  considered  as  having  been  handsome. 
His  physiognomy  was  strongly  expressive  of  intelligence,  and 
his  eye  was  remarkably  fine  and  penetrating. 

"In  temperament  he  was  irritable  and  even  choleric.  His 
spirits  were  irregular,  his  manners  consequently  variable,  im- 
petuous, vehement.  These  repeated  vacillations  between  equa- 
nimity and  depression  were  generally  owing  to  the  sudden  and 
repeated  attacks  of  his  continual  earthly  companion — irreg- 
ular gout. 

"  In  familiar  conversation  he  was  often  elegant,  remarkably 
facetious,  but  never  witty. 

"As  a  parent  he  was  kind,  tender,  and  indulgent  to  a 
fault. 

"  He  possessed  some  high  virtues ;  among  the  most  ele- 
vated of  them  was  his  unaffected  love  of  country.  Indeed,  his 
patriotic  feelings  were  not  only  strong,  .but  frequently  ex- 
pressed with  unreserved  warmth." 

A  sketch  of  Barton,  extracted  from  that  by  his  nephew, 
'was  published  in  The  Portfolio  for  April,  1816  (Philadelphia), 
and  in  an  editorial  note  prefixed  to  it  occurs  this  statement : 
"  Our  estimate,  too,  of  the  character  of  the  deceased  is  some- 
what different  from  that  which  has  been  formed  by  the  author 
of  this  '  Sketch.'  Dr.  Barton  was  a  very  industrious  man  in 
the  pursuit  of  science,  and  though  we  do  not  think  that  he  has 
contributed  much  to  enlarge  its  bounds,  we  are  willing  to  be- 
lieve that  his  collections  will  facilitate  the  labours  of  the  stu- 
dent, to  whom  he  has  left  a  laudable  example  of  active  dili- 
gence and  unwearied  perseverance." 


BENJAMIN   SMITH   BARTON.  89 

Dr.  Barton  was  in  correspondence  with  many  prominent 
naturalists  and  physicians  both  at  home  and  abroad.  He  es- 
tablished an  enviable  foreign  reputation,  as  is  attested  by  his 
membership  in  the  Imperial  Society  of  Naturalists  of  Moscow, 
the  Linnsean  Society  of  London,  the  Society  of  Antiquaries  of 
Scotland,  the  Danish  Royal  Society  of  Sciences;  and  the  Royal 
Danish  Medical  Society. 


ALEXANDER   WILSON. 

1766-1813. 

A  PECULIAR  interest  attaches  to  the  lives  and  labours  of 
pioneers.  The  circumstances  which  led  to  the  discovery  of  a 
new  continent,  the  first  application  of  one  of  the  forces  of  Na- 
ture to  the  services  of  man,  the  making  of  the  first  instrument 
for  viewing  the  stars,  and  the  first  description  of  the  animals, 
plants,  or  physical  features  of  a  country,  always  have  eager 
readers.  Then,  too,  the  personality  of  a  man  who  has  the 
courage  and  originality  to  set  forth  into  an  untrodden  field  is 
generally  picturesque  and  inspiring.  All  these  claims  to  atten- 
tion are  possessed  by  the  pioneer  American  ornithologist. 

Alexander  Wilson  was  born  on  the  6th  of  July,  1766,  at 
Paisley,  in  Renfrewshire,  which  lies  just  south  of  the  river 
Clyde.  His  father,  Alexander  Wilson,  was  a  weaver,  and 
reached  the  age  of  eighty-eight  years,  dying  in  1816.  During 
the  latter  part  of  his  life,  at  any  rate,  the  father  was  rated  as  a 
most  exemplary  citizen,  but  there  is  a  glamour  of  "moon- 
shine "  about  his  early  manhood,  in  the  sense  that,  when  not 
occupied  with  tending  the  loom,  he  operated  a  "wee  still," 
from  which  trickled  good  Scotch  whisky  that  was  consumed 
without  paying  tribute  to  the  tax-collector.  This  has  natu- 
rally been  denied,  but  not  with  entire  success.  His  wife  was  a 
Mary  McNab,  of  a  strictly  pious  character,  and  with  the  beauty 
that  frequently  accompanies  a  tendency  to  consumption.  Of 
this  disease  she  died  when  young  Alexander,  who  was  one  of 
three  children,  was  ten  years  old. 

Like  many  devout  Scottish  folk,  the  parents  of  "Alick," 
especially  his  mother,  cherished  the  ambition  that  their  boy 
should  "wag  his  head  i'  the  puppit  yet,"  but  his  genius  did  not 
lie  in  the  direction  of  the  ministerial  office.  He  attended  the 
Grammar  School  of  Paisley,  but  his  schooling  must  have  been 
interrupted  and  of  no  great  amount,  for  much  of  his  boyhood 
was  otherwise  occupied,  and  his  deficiencies  in  grammar,  spell- 

90 


ALEXANDER   WILSON. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON.  ^r 

ing,  etc.,  clung  to  him  till  manhood.  He  is  known  to  have 
struggled  with  his  backwardness  in  arithmetic  after  emigrating 
to  America.  His  handwriting  was  called  excellent,  and  his  lan- 
guage was  simple  and  idiomatic.  The  taste  for  reading,  which 
he  early  developed,  largely  made  up  for  his  scanty  schooling. 
At  one  time  he  was  sent  to  be  a  herd  on  a  farm  called  Baker- 
field,  not  far  from  Paisley,  where  he  remained  probably  not 
more  than  a  single  summer.  It  is  said  that  "  he  was  a  very 
careless  herd,  letting  the  kye  transgress  on  the  corn,  being 
very  often  busied  with  some  book." 

In  his  thirteenth  year  he  was  bound  apprentice  as  a  weaver, 
for  three  years,  to  his  brother-in-law,  William  Duncan.  Hav- 
ing served  out  his  time  in  1782,  he  continued  a  weaver  "by 
constraint,  not  willingly,"  for  four  years,  living  part  of  the 
time  under  his  father's  roof  in  Paisley  and  in  Lochwinnoch, 
and  finally  with  his  brother-in-law  at  Queensferry.  His  taste 
was  for  outdoor  life,  and  he  had  inherited  a  feeble  constitution 
from  his  mother,  so  that  the  loom  was  irksome  to  him  both 
mentally  and  physically.  During  this  period  young  Wilson 
began  to  contribute  verses  to  the  local  newspapers.  His  best 
piece,  however,  Watty  and  Meg,  was  published  in  1792,  as  a 
penny  chap-book,  without  his  name,  and  was  ascribed  to  Robert 
Burns.  The  latter,  who  lived  not  far  away,  and  was  but  six 
years  older,  strengthened  the  compliment  by  avowing  that  he 
should  have  been  glad  to  be  its  author.  Wilson's  descriptive 
pieces  are  interesting,  from  the  evidence  they  give  of  his  natu- 
ral fondness  for  the  woods  and  fields. 

After  a  while  Duncan  decided  to  "  travel  "  as  a  peddler 
through  the  eastern  districts  of  Scotland,  and  invited  Alexander 
to  accompany  him.  Accordingly,  the  two  abandoned  the  loom 
and  entered  upon  their  new  occupation.  The  Scotch  peddler 
of  that  time  was  generally  a  man  of  shrewdness  and  common 
sense,  probably  resembling  the  best  type  of  our  own  departed 
Yankee  peddler,  and  was  generally  respected  by  the  common 
people,  but  often  suspected  and  despised  by  the  wealthier. 
This  occupation,  although  it  delivered  Wilson  from  the  con- 
finement of  the  weaving  room,  was  not  all  sunshine.  It  in- 
volved trials  and  rebuffs,  which  to  a  man,  as  Grosart*  calls 

*  The  Poems  and  Literary  Prose  of  Alexander  Wilson,  edited  with  memorial 
introduction,  essay,  etc.,  by  the  Rev.  Alexander  B.  Grosart,  two  vols.,  Paisley, 
1876. 


92  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

him,  "of  sensitive,  strangely  refined  if  also  in  elements  as 
strangely  coarsened  temperament,"  must  have  been  hardly 
borne.  His  Journal  as  a  Pedlar,  several  poems  bearing  on  his 
experiences  of  the  road,  and  his  earlier  letters  give  a  realizing 
sense  of  the  lights  and  shadows  of  this  kind  of  life.  In  addi- 
tion to  his  trading,  he  solicited  subscriptions  for  a  volume  of 
poems,  which  he  published  in  1790. 

In  a  short  time  he  dropped  the  pack  and  returned  to  his 
hated  trade  of  weaving.  Being  in  ill  health  and  sorely  op- 
pressed by  poverty,  he  was  at  this  period  much  given  to  de- 
spondency. Yet  he  had  a  humour  which  enabled  him  at  times 
to  joke  about  his  necessities.  He  had  a  gift  of  satire,  also, 
which  got  him  into  some  trouble,  but  which  was  the  cause  of 
his  taking  the  first  step  in  the  path  that  led  to  fame.  Industrial 
affairs  in  Great  Britain  at  that  time  were  greatly  unsettled. 
Many  of  the  Paisley  weavers  were  unemployed,  and  capital 
and  labour  were  arrayed  against  each  other.  Some  of  the 
turbulent  spirits  among  his  fellow-weavers  induced  the  enthu- 
siastic young  Wilson  to  use  his  talent  for  verse-making  to 
abuse  the  capitalists.  Several  poems  of  his,  portraying  in  no 
flattering  light  certain  local  petty  tyrants,  were  adjudged  libel- 
lous, and  Wilson,  who  manfully  acknowledged  their  authorship, 
was  fined  heavily  and  condemned  to  burn  the  poems  in  public. 
Being  unable  to  pay  the  fine,  he  was  sent  to  jail. 

In  this  hour  of  gloom,  Wilson's  eyes  were  turned  to  the 
New  World.  Attracted  by  the  chances  for  winning  his  way 
open  to  a  free  man  in  a  new  country,  he  determined  to  emi- 
grate. Accordingly,  he  and  his  nephew,  William  Duncan, 
sailed  from  Belfast  Loch,  Friday,  May  23,  1794,  and  after  a 
voyage  of  over  seven  weeks  landed  at  Newcastle,  Delaware. 
Wilson  was  then  twenty-eight  years  old.  He  and  young  Dun- 
can went  first  to  Wilmington,  and  from  there  to  Philadelphia, 
looking  for  employment  at  weaving.  At  the  latter  place,  he 
writes  in  his  first  letter  home  to  his  father  and  step-mother, 
"  we  made  a  more  vigorous  search  than  ever  for  weavers,  and 
found,  to  our  astonishment,  that,  though  the  city  contains 
between  forty  and  fifty  thousand  people,  there  is  not  twenty 
weavers  among  the  whole,  and  these  had  no  conveniences  for 
journeymen,  nor  seemed  to  wish  for  any,  so,  after  we  had  spent 
every  farthing  we  had,  and  saw  no  hopes  of  anything  being 
done  that  way,  we  took  the  first  offer  of  employment  we  could 


ALEXANDER  WILSON.  93 

find,  and  have  continued  so  since."  This  employment  was  in 
the  shop  of  a  copper-plate  printer.  The  above-quoted  letter 
was  a  long  and  very  newsy  one,  and  contains  Wilson's  first  ob- 
servation of  the  feathered  creatures  that  were  to  make  his 
fame.  He  writes :  *'  As  we  passed  through  the  woods  on  our 
way  to  Philadelphia,  I  did  not  observe  one  bird  such  as  those 
in  Scotland,  but  all  much  richer  in  colour.  We  saw  a  great 
number  of  squirrels,  snakes  about  a  yard  long,  and  some  red 
birds,  several  of  which  I  shot  for  our  curiosity." 

Wilson  remained  in  his  first  found  employment  but  a  few 
weeks.  After  that  he  worked  at  his  trade  of  weaving  at  a  place 
ten  miles  north  of  Philadelphia,  and  for  a  short  time  in  Vir- 
ginia. In  1795  he  tramped  through  northern  New  Jersey  as  a 
peddler.  He  had  been  in  America  but  little  over  a  year  when 
he  took  up  school-teaching,  and  at  this  occupation  he  suc- 
ceeded remarkably  well,  although  it  gave  him  only  a  scanty 
income.  He  first  opened  a  school  at  Frankford,  but  soon  gave 
it  up  to  become  master  of  the  school  at  Milestown,  in  Phila- 
delphia County,  where  he  taught  for  nearly  six  years.  His 
own  education  had  been  limited ;  so,  after  he  began  to  teach, 
he  had  to  study  diligently  to  make  up  his  deficiencies.  He  ad- 
vanced so  far  in  mathematics  that  he  was  enabled  to  take  oc- 
casional employment  as  a  surveyor. 

After  leaving  Milestown  he  taught  for  a  while  at  Bloom- 
field,  N.  J.,  but  found  this  place  disagreeable ;  and  he  was  at 
the  same  time  burdened  with  a  trouble,  only  dimly  revealed  in 
his  letters,  but  in  which  one  of  the  Milestown  young  ladies 
figured.  He  became  very  despondent,  and  even  thought  of  re- 
turning to  Scotland.  It  was  not  long  before  he  obtained  a 
school  at  Kingsessing,  near  Gray's  Ferry,  on  the  Schuylkill. 
His  removal  to  this  place  was  attended  with  important  results, 
He  became  acquainted  with  William  Bartram,  who  lived  at  the 
famous  garden  of  his  father,  not  far  away,  and  with  Alexander 
Lawson,  the  engraver,  both  of  whom  became  his  steadfast 
friends.  Bartram  lent  him  books,  among  them  the  works  of 
Catesby  and  Edwards.  In  the  parts  of  these  works  relating  to 
American  birds,  Wilson's  own  acquaintance  with  the  birds  was 
enough  to  show  him  an  exasperating  number  of  errors,  false 
theories,  and  caricatured  figures.  During  the  early  part  of  his 
life  at  this  place  Wilson  was  so  despondent  that  Lawson  at  one 
time  feared  for  his  reason,  and  advised  him  to  give  up  poetry 


94 


PIONEERS    OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


and  his  flute,  which  seemed  to  increase  his  melancholy,  and  to 
take  up  drawing.  This  accomplishment  does  not  seem  to  have 
come  very  naturally  to  him,  for  he  made  a  failure  of  the  land- 
scapes and  human  figures  which  Lawson  set  before  him.  Still, 
the  statement  of  an  American  writer  that  he  was  "  without  any 
previously  suspected  aptitude  "  is  denied  by  Mr.  Grosart,  who 
adds  that  drawings  by  him  before  he  left  Scotland  are  pre- 
served in  the  Paisley  Museum  with  the  collection  of  Wilson's 
manuscripts.  Bartram  and  his  niece,  Miss  Nancy,  started  him 
again  on  easier  subjects — first  flowers,  and  then  birds,  with 
which  he  made  encouraging  success. 

It  is  in  a  letter  to  one  of  his  Scottish  biographers,  his  old 
friend  in  Paisley,  Mr.  Thomas  Crichton,  under  date  of  June  i, 
1803,  that  Wilson's  determination  to  study  the  birds  of  America 
is  earliest  recorded.  "  Close  application  to  the  duties  of  my 
profession,"  he  writes,  "  which  I  have  followed  since  Novem- 
ber, 1795,  has  deeply  injured  my  constitution,  the  more  so  that 
my  rambling  disposition  was  the  worst  calculated  of  any  one's 
in  the  world  for  the  austere  regularity  of  a  teacher's  life.  I 
have  had  many  pursuits  since  I  left  Scotland — mathematics, 
the  German  language,  music,  drawing,  etc.,  and  I  am  now  about 
to  make  a  collection  of  all  our  finest  birds."  At  first  he  de- 
voted only  leisure  hours  to  the  birds,  and  his  figures  "  were 
chiefly  coloured  by  candle-light,"  but  he  soon  began  to  make 
longer  and  longer  expeditions.  In  October,  1804,  he  set  out 
with  two  companions,  on  foot,  to  visit  Niagara.  From  there 
he  went  through  the  lake  region  of  central  New  York,  visiting 
his  sister  and  her  children,  who  were  living  on  a  farm  that 
Wilson  and  his  nephew  William  had  bought  together.  He 
made  his  way  home  down  the  Mohawk  Valley  to  Albany,  and 
thence  by  boat  to  New  York.  In  this  journey,  occupying  two 
months,  he  traversed  over  twelve  hundred  miles.  Winter  over- 
took him  in  the  midst  of  it,  so  that  the  latter  part  of  it  was 
made  "through  deep  snows  and  almost  uninhabited  forests; 
over  stupendous  mountains  and  down  dangerous  rivers."  The 
trip  seems  to  have  benefited  both  his  health  and  spirits,  for  in 
his  account  of  it,  written  to  Bartram,  he  expresses  eagerness 
for  wider  explorations  and  new  discoveries.  "With  no  family 
to  enchain  my  affections,  no  ties  but  those  of  friendship,  and 
the  most  ardent  love  of  my  adopted  country ;  with  a  constitu- 
tion which  hardens  amid  fatigues,  and  a  disposition  sociable 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


95 


and  open,  which  can  find  itself  at  home  by  an  Indian  fire  in  the 
depth  of  the  woods,  as  well  as  in  the  best  apartment  of  the 
civilized  [world],  I  have  at  present  a  real  design  of  becoming 
a  traveller.  But  I  am  miserably  deficient  in  many  acquire- 
ments absolutely  necessary  for  such  a  character.  Botany, 
mineralogy,  and  drawing  I  most  ardently  wish  to  be  instructed 
in,  and  with  these  I  should  fear  nothing."  How  oblivious  to 
matters  of  detail  his  enthusiasm  made  him  can  be  judged, 
Ord  *  remarks,  from  the  fact  that  at  this  time  Wilson's  avail- 
able cash  amounted  to  seventy-five  cents. 

Two  of  the  birds  which  he  shot  in  New  York,  one  being  the 
Canada  jay,  were  unknown  to  Wilson's  associates.  He  made 
careful  drawings  of  them,  and  got  Mr.  Bartram  to  send  them  to 
President  Jefferson,  whom  Wilson  much  admired.  The  Presi- 
dent, who  was  quite  an  amateur  naturalist,  replied  with  a  very 
appreciative  letter,  in  which  he  put  Wilson  on  the  track  of  a 
certain  sweet-singing  and  very  unapproachable  bird.  He  had 
"  followed  it  for  miles  without  ever,  but  once,  getting  a  good 
view  of  it,"  and  had  for  twenty  years  tried  to  get  a  specimen, 
without  success.  "After  many  inquiries  and  unwearied  re- 
search," says  Ord,  "  it  turned  out  that  this  invisible  musician 
was  no  other  than  the  wood  robin,  a  bird  which,  if  sought  for 
in  those  places  which  it  affects,  may  be  seen  every  hour  of  the 
day."  The  next  summer  Wilson  announced  to  Bartram  his  de- 
termination to  make  a  collection  of  drawings  of  the  birds  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  sent  him  twenty-eight  for  criticism.  The 
scope  of  his  undertaking  was  extended,  within  a  few  months, 
so  as  to  include  the  whole  United  States.  He  had  planned  an 
expedition  down  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  Rivers  for  the  sum- 
mer of  1806  with  Bartram;  but  the  latter,  who  was  nearly  sev- 
enty years  old,  gave  up  the  idea.  Wilson,  who  had  heard  that 
explorers  were  to  be  sent  by  the  Government  up  the  Red  and 
Arkansas  Rivers,  through  the  recently  acquired  Territory  of 
Louisiana,  then  offered  himself  to  President  Jefferson  for  this 
service,  "  Mr.  Wilson,"  says  Ord,  "was  particularly  anxious  to 
accompany  Pike,  who  commenced  his  journey  from  the  canton- 
ment on  the  Missouri,  for  the  sources  of  the  Arkansas,  etc.,  on  the 
i5th  of  July,  1806."  But  no  reply  was  made  to  his  application. 


*  Life  of  Alexander  Wilson,  by  George  Ord,  in  volume  ix  of  the  Ameri- 
can Ornithology. 


96  PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

About  this  time  he  was  engaged  by  the  publishers,  Messrs. 
Bradford  and  Inskeep,  as  assistant  editor  for  the  revision  of 
Rees's  New  Cyclopaedia,  on  "  a  generous  salary,"  namely,  nine 
hundred  dollars  a  year.  He  now  gave  up  school-keeping,  which 
had  been  his  calling  for  ten  years.  While  in  this  position  he 
made  known  his  plans  for  the  American  Ornithology  to  Brad- 
ford, who  readily  agreed  to  undertake  its  publication.  A  pro- 
spectus was  immediately  issued,  and  a  year  later,  in  September, 
1808,  the  first  volume  of  the  work  appeared.  In  the  fall  of 
that  year  Wilson  made  a  trip  through  New  England,  "  in  search 
of  bjrds  and  subscribers."  On  the  way  from  Philadelphia  he 
stopped  at  Princeton  to  show  his  work  to  the  college  professors. 
He  expected  to  get  some  valuable  information  on  American 
birds  from  the  Professor  of  Natural  History,  "but,"  he  writes, 
"  I  soon  found,  to  my  astonishment,  that  he  scarcely  knew  a 
sparrow  from  a  woodpecker."  WTherever  he  showed  his  book  to 
college  professors,  and  other  literary  men,  the  highest  praise 
was  lavished  upon  it,  but  subscriptions  were  not  so  freely  forth- 
coming, the  price,  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars,  being  a 
serious  obstacle.  He  wrote  from  Albany,  on  his  way  home, 
that  he  had  obtained  only  forty-one  subscribers.  One  of  the 
less  intelligent  personages,  whose  favour  he  had  sought,  was  the 
then  Governor  of  New  York — Daniel  D.  Tompkins.  This  mag- 
nate, as  Wilson  informs  us,  "  turned  over  a  few  pages,  looked  at 
a  picture  or  two,  asked  me  my  price,  and,  while  in  the  act  of 
closing  the  book,  added,  '  I  would  not  give  a  hundred  dollars 
for  all  the  birds  you  intend  to  describe,  even  had  I  them 
alive.' " 

He  soon  set  off  again  on  a  trip  through  Baltimore,  Wash- 
ington (where  he  was  received  "  very  kindly  "  by  Jefferson), 
and  other  Southern  cities,  and  when  he  reached  home  had  in 
all  two  hundred  and  fifty  subscribers.  In  the  South  he  shot 
several  new  birds.  It  was  now  deemed  advisable  to  add  three 
hundred  impressions  of  Volume  I  to  the  two  hundred  first 
struck  off,  and  the  second  volume  started  with  an  edition  of 
five  hundred  copies.  His  undertaking  had  already  won  him 
"  reputation  and  respect,"  but  the  pecuniary  return  was  still 
doubtful. 

Volume  II  of  the  Ornithology  was  ready  in  1810,  and  in 
February  of  that  year  Wilson  set  out  on  another  hunt  for  new 
specimens  of  the  feathered  tribes  and  those  rarer  birds— sub- 


ALEXANDER  WILSON. 


97 


scribers.  His  varied  adventures  on  these  expeditions,  and  his 
impressions  of  the  people  and  places  that  he  visited,  are  de- 
lightfully recorded  in  the  letters  which  Mr.  Grosart  collected. 

At  Hanover,  Pa.,  he  met  a  judge  who  condemned  his  work 
because  "  it  was  not  within  the  reach  of  the  commonality,  and 
therefore  inconsistent  with  our  republican  institutions."  Wil- 
son turned  the  tables  on  this  learned  man  by  showing  that  the 
judge's  elegant  three-story  brick  house  was  open  to  the  same 
objection  ;  and  then  in  a  more  serious  vein  pointed  out  to  him 
the  benefit  which  a  young,  rising  nation  can  derive  from  science, 
"  till  he  began  to  show  such  symptoms  of  intellect  as  to  seem 
ashamed  of  what  he  said."  From  Pittsburg  Wilson  made  his 
way  in  a  skiff  down  the  Ohio  over  seven  hundred  miles,  nearly 
to  Louisville,  stopping  at  the  important  towns  on  the  way. 

At  Louisville  one  of  the  persons  on  whom  he  called  was 
Audubon,  then  thirty  years  old  and  engaged  in  business. 
Audubon  has  left  an  account  of  this  meeting,  in  which  he  thus 
describes  Wilson's  physical  appearance :  "  How  well  do  I  re- 
member him  as  he  walked  up  to  me!  His  long,  rather  hooked 
nose,  the  keenness  of  his  eyes,  and  his  prominent  cheek  bones 
stamped  his  countenance  with  a  peculiar  character.  .  .  .  His 
stature  was  not  above  the  middle  size."  Audubon  claims  that 
he  was  about  to  subscribe  for  the  Ornithology,  but  a  compli- 
mentary reference  to  his  own  knowledge  of  birds,  spoken  in 
French  by  his  partner,  checked  him.  "  Vanity  and  the  en- 
comium of  my  friend  prevented  me  from  subscribing,"  he 
writes,  and  to  this  he  adds  that  he  lent  some  of  his  drawings 
to  Wilson,  and  hunted  with  him,  obtaining  some  birds  which 
the  latter  had  never  seen  before.  Audubon  states  also  that 
being  in  Philadelphia  some  time  afterward  he  called  on  Wilson, 
who  received  him  with  civility,  but  did  not  speak  of  birds  or 
drawings.  Against  this  story  must  be  set  the  following  ex- 
tract from  Wilson's  diary  published  in  the  ninth  volume  of  the 
Ornithology  :  "  March  23d,  I  bade  adieu  to  Louisville,  to  which 
place  I  had  four  letters  of  recommendation,  and  was  taught  to 
expect  much  of  everything  there ;  but  neither  received  one  act 
of  civility  from  those  to  whom  I  was  recommended,  one  sub- 
scriber, nor  one  new  bird ;  though  I  delivered  my  letters,  ran- 
sacked the  woods  repeatedly,  and  visited  all  the  characters 
likely  to  subscribe.  Science  or  literature  has  not  one  friend 
in  this  place."  "We  must  take  Audubon's  account,"  says  his 


98  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

own  biographer,  Robert  Buchanan,  "cum  grano  salts"  while 
Grosart,  eager  in  defence  of  Wilson,  does  not  hesitate  to  call  it 
"a  tissue  of  lies,"  except  his  admission  that  vanity  kept  him 
from  subscribing  to  Wilson's  work. 

Turning  southward,  Wilson  crossed  Kentucky  to  Tennessee, 
and  proceeded  through  the  Chickasaw  and  Choctaw  countries 
to  Natchez,  and  thence  went  to  New  Orleans. 

By  persistent  labour  the  successive  volumes  of  the  Ornithol- 
ogy were  issued  up  to  the  seventh,  which  appeared  in  the 
spring  of  1813.  On  the  6th  of  July  in  that  year  he  wrote:  "  I 
am  myself  far  from  being  in  good  health.  Intense  application 
to  study  has  hurt  me  much.  My  eighth  volume  is  now  in  the 
press  and  will  be  published  in  November.  One  volume  more 
will  complete  the  whole."  But  he  was  not  to  see  the  appear- 
ance of  even  the  eighth  volume.  The  unremitting  labour  of 
that  summer,  carried  on  in  the  city,  where  even  his  tramps 
with  his  gun  were  cut  off,  so  reduced  his  strength  that  he  suc- 
cumbed to  an  attack  of  his  old  enemy  the  dysentery  and  died, 
August  23,  1813,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven.  The  immediate 
cause  of  the  attack  was  his  swimming  a  river  in  pursuit  of  a 
rare  bird  that  he  caught  sight  of  while  visiting  a  friend. 

Wilson  died  unmarried,  although  in  his  letters  he  condemns 
celibacy,  and  shows  that  he  was  not  indifferent  to  female  com- 
panionship. In  fact,  he  was  to  have  married  a  Miss  Miller, 
whom  he  made  one  of  his  executors.  George  Ord,  who  had 
accompanied  Wilson  on  some  of  his  trips,  was  made  a  coexec- 
utor,  and  completed  the  publication  of  the  Qrnithology,  pre- 
fixing to  the  last  volume  a  life  of  the  author.  The  original 
edition  of  Wilson's  great  work  is  now  rare.  It  comprises  nine 
thin  folio  volumes,  about  eleven  by  fourteen  inches  in  size. 
Several  birds  are  figured  on  each  plate — the  smallest  ones  of 
life  size,  the  others  reduced.  An  edition  in  three  volumes,  in- 
cluding the  birds  afterward  described  by  Prince  Bonaparte, 
was  issued  in  i829-'36,*  and  another  in  four  volumes,  edited 
by  Prof.  Robert  Jameson,  in  1831. 

Wilson  was  no  compiler ;  he  took  his  facts  from  his  own 
observations,  or  the  accounts  of  those  who  had  known  the  birds 
for  a  lifetime.  He  had,  further,  as  Grosart  says,  a  "  magnet- 


*  American  Ornithology,  by  Alexander  Wilson  and  Prince  Charles  Lucien 
Bonaparte.     Edited,  with  a  Life  of  Wilson,  by  Sir  William  Jardine,  Bart. 


ALEXANDER  WILSON.  QQ 

ical  sympathy  with  the  birds  whereby  his  descriptions  of  their 
looks  and  ways  and  faculties  take  the  colouring  of  so  many 
little  biographies  of  personal  friends." 

Sir  William  Jardine  says  of  Wilson  :  "  He  was  the  first  who 
truly  studied  the  birds  of  North  America  in  their  natural 
abodes,  and  from  real  observations ;  and  his  work  will  ever 
remain  an  ever-to-be-admired  testimony  of  enthusiasm  and 
perseverance — one  certainly  unrivalled  in  descriptions;  and  if 
some  plates  and  illustrations  may  vie  with  it  in  finer  workman- 
ship or  pictorial  splendour,  few,  indeed,  can  rival  it  in  fidelity 
and  truth  of  delineation." 


DAVID   HOSACK. 

1769-1835. 

IN  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  no  citizen  of 
New  York  was  held  in  higher  honour  than  was  De  Witt  Clin- 
ton. Closely  associated  with  Clinton  in  the  leadership  of  the 
civic  life  of  the  day,  but  holding  rigidly  aloof  from  politics, 
was  Dr.  Hosack.  "  It  was  not  infrequently  remarked  by  our 
citizens,"  said  his  pupil  and  associate,  John  W.  Francis,  "  that 
Clinton,  Hosack,  and  Hobart  were  the  tripod  on  which  our 
city  stood."  Dr.  Hosack  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  New 
York  Historical  Society  and  its  president  from  1820  to  1828, 
He  was  also  instrumental  in  founding  an  art  society,  was  prom- 
inent in  various  scientific,  literary,  and  humane  undertakings, 
and,  if  his  lead  had  been  followed,  New  York  would  have  to- 
day a  botanic  garden  equal  to  any  in  a  European  metropolis. 

David  Hosack  was  the  eldest  of  seven  children,  and  was 
born  August  31,  1769,  in  the  house  of  his  maternal  grand- 
father, No.  44  Frankfort  Street,  New  York.  His  father,  Alex- 
ander Hosack,  was  a  native  of  Morayshire  (Elgin),  Scotland. 
Having  entered  the  British  army,  he  was,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  serving  as  an  officer  in  the  artillery.  He  came  to  America 
in  the  force  under  General  Sir  Jeffrey  Amherst,  and  was  at  the 
retaking  of  Louisburg.  April  i,  1768,  he  married  in  New 
York  Jane,  daughter  of  Francis  Arden.  Her  father's  family 
came  from  England,  while  that  of  her  mother  belonged  to  that 
valuable  contingent  of  Huguenot  citizens  which  America  re- 
ceived as  a  consequence  of  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes. 

Young  David,  after  receiving  the  ordinary  elements  of  edu- 
cation, was  placed  at  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age  in  the 
academy  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander  McWhorter,  of  Newark, 
N.  J.,  where  he  pursued  the  study  of  Latin  and  other  usual 
branches  and  began  to  learn  Greek.  But  as  Dr.  Peter  Wilson, 

100 


DAVID    HOSACK. 


DAVID   HOSACK.  IOI 

of  Hackensack,  was  a  more  distinguished  teacher  of  that  lan- 
guage than  Dr.  McWhorter,  David  was  transferred  to  his  acad- 
emy in  1785.  The  next  year  he  entered  Columbia  College, 
remaining  in  that  institution  until  the  middle  of  his  junior  year. 
He  had  also  private  tutors  in  the  classics  and  the  French 
language.  In  the  beginning  of  the  junior  year,  finding  his 
time  not  fully  occupied,  he  took  up  the  study  of  medicine  as  a 
private  pupil  under  Dr.  Richard  Bayley.  "  He  had  scarcely 
begun  his  studies,"  writes  his  son,*  "  before  the  celebrated 
'  Doctors'  Mob  '  occurred,  which  threatened  serious  results  to  l 
those  concerned ;  it  arose  in  consequence  of  the  imprudence 
of  some  of  the  students  carelessly  pursuing  dissection  in  the 
building  upon  the  site  since  occupied  as  the  New  York  Hos- 
pital. This  mob  caused  many  of  the  professors  to  absent 
themselves  from  the  city  and  others  to  seek  shelter  in  the  city 
jail.  Mr.  Hosack,  with  the  rest  of  the  students  interested, 
learning  that  the  mob  had  seized  upon  and  demolished  the 
anatomical  preparations  found  in  the  lecture  room  above  re- 
ferred to,  repaired  immediately  to  Columbia  College,f  with  the 
view  of  saving  such  specimens  as  were  to  be  found  in  that 
institution.  Before  reaching  the  college,  however,  and  when 
on  his  way  in  Park  Place,  he  was  knocked  down  by  a  stone 
striking  him  on  the  head  ;  he  would  in  all  probability  have 
been  killed  hfid  it  not  been  for  the  protection  he  received  from 
the  neighbour  of  his  father,  Mr.  Mount,  who  was  passing  at 
the  time  and  took  care  of  him." 

In  the  fall  of  1788  young  Hosack  entered  the  senior  class 
of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  at  Princeton  in  order  that  he 
might  the  sooner  complete  his  collegiate  course  and  devote  his 
whole  attention  to  the  study  of  medicine,  to  which  he  had 
become  ardently  attached.  "  Having  finished  my  course  at 
Princeton,"  he  says  in  some  memoranda  that  he  left  for  the 
benefit  of  his  children,  "  I  returned  to  New  York  and  resumed 
my  favourite  medical  studies,  to  which  I  now  gave  my  undivided 
attention,  availing  myself  of  every  advantage  which  the  city  at 
that  time  presented.  I  attended  the  lectures  on  anatomy  and 

*  Dr.  Alexander  E.  Hosack,  in  a  biography  contributed  to  the  Lives  of 
Eminent  American  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  edited 
by  Samuel  D.  Gross,  M.  D.  From  this  biography  most  of  the  facts  for  the 
present  article  have  been  drawn. 

\  Then  in  College  Place. 


102  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

physiology  delivered  by  Dr.  Wright  Post,  those  on  chemistry 
and  practice  of  physic,  by  Dr.  Nicholas  Romayne,  and  the 
valuable  course  on  midwifery  and  the  diseases  of  women  and 
children,  by  Dr.  Bard.  I  also  attended  the  practice  of  physic 
and  surgery  at  the  almshouse,  which  then  offered  the  only 
means  of  clinical  instruction  in  this  city ;  they  were,  how- 
ever, very  ample,  the  house  being  daily  visited  by  Dr. 
Post,  Dr.  William  Moore,  Dr.  Romayne,  and  Dr.  Benjamin 
Kissam." 

There  was  then  no  institution  in  New  York  empowered 
to  grant  the  degree  in  medicine,  the  medical  faculty  of  Co- 
lumbia, formerly  King's  College,  having  been  broken  up  by 
the  Revolution.  So  after  a  year  of  private  study  Hosack  pro- 
ceeded to  Philadelphia  and  enrolled  at  the  medical  school  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  where  Drs.  Shippen,  Rush, 
Kuhn,  and  Wistar  were  then  among  the  professors,  and  in  the 
summer  of  the  succeeding  year  obtained  his  medical  degree. 
In  the  same  year  he  married  at  Princeton  Miss  Catharine  War- 
ner, a  young  lady  of  great  worth,  to  whom  he  had  become  at- 
tached while  pursuing  his  collegiate  studies. 

By  the  advice  of  Dr.  Rush  and  others  whom  he  consulted 
Dr.  Hosack  settled  first  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  which  place  he  be- 
lieved was  to  be  the  capital  of  the  United  States.  The  prac- 
tice that  he  acquired  here,  although  considerable?  was  not  sat- 
isfactory to  him,  and  after  a  year's  residence  he  returned  to 
New  York.  He  now  determined  to  supplement  his  medical 
studies  abroad.  "  Observing  the  distinction,"  to  quote  his 
own  words,  "  which  our  citizens  at  that  time  made  between 
those  physicians  who  had  been  educated  at  home,  and  those 
who  had  had  additional  instruction  from  the  universities  of 
Europe,  and  knowing  how  little  property  I  had  reason  to  ex- 
pect from  my  parents,  I  found  that  my  chief  dependence  was 
upon  my  own  industry  and  increasing  attention  to  the  profes- 
sion I  had  chosen  as  the  means  of  my  subsistence ;  my  ambi- 
tion to  excel  in  my  profession  did  not  suffer  me  to  remain  in- 
sensible under  such  distinction.  Although  it  was  painful  for 
me  to  think  of  leaving  my  family,  consisting  then  of  a  wife  and 
child,  I  accordingly  suggested  to  my  father  the  propriety  of  my 
making  a  visit  to  Europe,  and  of  attending  the  medical  schools 
of  Edinburgh  and  London.  He  at  once,  with  his  character- 
istic liberality,  acquiesced  in  my  views  and  wishes.  In  August, 


DAVID   HOSACK.  IO3 

1792,  leaving  my  family  to  the  care  of  my  parents,  I  took  pas- 
sage for  Liverpool." 

After  spending  a  few  days  in  Liverpool  he  proceeded  to 
Edinburgh,  where  he  attended  the  medical  lectures  at  the 
university  during  the  following  winter.  In  the  spring,  after  a 
visit  to  his  father's  birthplace,  where  he  met  two  uncles  and 
other  relatives,  and  to  some  other  places  in  Scotland,  he  re- 
paired to  the  metropolis  and  entered  as  a  pupil  of  St.  Barthol- 
omew's Hospital.  He  also  frequently  visited  other  hospitals 
when  any  important  surgical  operations  were  performed,  sur- 
gery being  the  favourite  subject  of  his  pursuit ;  he  nevertheless 
did  not  neglect  the  collateral  branches  of  medical  science. 

It  was  during  this  stay  abroad  that  his  interest  in  botany 
sprang  up.  "Having,"  as  he  says,  "upon  one  occasion — 
while  walking  in  the  garden  of  Prof.  Hamilton,  at  Bland- 
ford,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edinburgh — been  very  much 
mortified  by  my  ignorance  of  botany,  with  which  his  other 
guests  were  familiarly  conversant,  I  had  resolved  at  that  time, 
whenever  an  opportunity  might  offer,  to  acquire  a  knowledge 
of  that  department  of  science.  Such  an  opportunity  was  now 
presented,  and  I  eagerly  availed  myself  of  it.  The  late  Mr.  Wil- 
liam Curtis,  author  of  the  Flora  Londinensis,  had  at  that  time 
just  completed  his  botanic  garden  at  Brompton,  which  was 
arranged  in  «such  a  manner  as  to  render  it  most  instructive  to 
those  desirous  of  becoming  acquainted  with  this  ornamental 
and  useful  branch  of  a  medical  education.  Although  Mr. 
Curtis  had  for  some  time  ceased  to  give  lectures  on  botany,  he 
very  kindly  undertook,  at  my  solicitation,  to  instruct  me  in  the 
elements  of  botanical  science.  For  this  purpose  I  visited  the 
botanical  garden  daily  throughout  the  summer,  spending  sev- 
eral hours  in  examining  the  various  genera  and  species  to  be 
found  in  that  establishment.  I  also  had  the  benefit  once  a 
week  of  accompanying  him  in  an  excursion  to  the  different 
parts  of  the  country  in  the  vicinity  of  London.  Dr.  William 
Babbington,  Dr.  Thornton,  Dr.  (now  Sir)  Smith  Gibbs,  Dr. 
Hunter,  of  New  York,  the  Hon.  Mr.  Greville,  and  myself  com- 
posed the  class  in  these  instructive  botanical  excursions,  in  the 
summer  of  1793. 

"  By  Mr.  Dickson,  of  Covent  Garden,  the  celebrated  cryptog- 
amist,  the  lmaximus  in  minimis,'  as  Mr.  Curtis  has  very  prop- 
erly and  facetiously  denominated  him,  I  was  also  initiated  into 


IO4 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


the  secrets  of  the  cryptogamic  class  of  plants.  In  the  spring 
of  1794  I  also  attended  the  public  lectures  of  botany  delivered 
by  the  President  of  the  Linnaean  Society,  Dr.  (now  Sir)  James 
Edward  Smith ;  and  by  the  kindness  of  the  same  gentleman  I 
had  access  to  the  Linnaean  Herbarium.  I  spent  several  hours 
daily  for  four  months  examining  the  various  genera  and  the 
most  important  species  contained  in  that  extensive  collection. 
Notwithstanding  my  attention  to  botany,  I  was  not  unmindful 
of  the  other  departments  of  medicine."  The  acquaintance 
thus  begun  with  Sir  James  Edward  Smith  ripened  into  an  affec- 
tionate friendship,  and  a  correspondence  was  begun  that  ended 
only  with  Smith's  life. 

In  the  course  of  the  winter  of  1 793-^4  Dr.  Hosack  em- 
bodied certain  Observations  on  Vision  in  a  paper  which  he 
communicated  to  the  Royal  Society.  It  was  published  in  the 
society's  Transactions  for  1794,  and  brought  him,  after  due 
examination  by  a  committee,  the  thanks  of  the  society.  A 
theory  was  in  some  vogue  at  the  time  that  the  power  of  ac- 
commodation in  the  eye  resided  in  the  crystalline  lens.  Ho- 
sack maintained  the  opposing  theory,  that  it  depended  upon 
the  external  muscles.  His  paper  contained  many  original 
views,  and  its  statements  were  supported  by  experiments  that 
he  had  made  upon  himself  and  others. 

He  returned  to  New  York  in  1794  by  the  ship  Mohawk, 
the  passage  lasting  fifty-three  days.  On  the  voyage  typhus 
fever  made  its  appearance  and  became  very  general,  particu- 
larly among  the  steerage  passengers.  Dr.  Hosack  being  the 
only  physician  on  board,  was  called  upon  to  attend  the  stricken 
ones,  and  was  wonderfully  successful,  not  losing  a  single  case. 
His  services  were  duly  appreciated  by  all,  as  was  evinced  by 
the  unsolicited  vote  of  thanks  published  in  the  daily  papers 
when  the  ship  reached  port. 

Taking  up  his  residence  in  New  York  city,  Dr.  Hosack  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five  years  began  again  the  practice  of  his 
profession  under  the  most  favourable  auspices.  Mr.  Thomas 
Law,  who  had  been  a  fellow-passenger  on  the  Mohawk,  intro- 
duced him  to  many  of  his  acquaintances,  among  whom  were 
General  Hamilton  and  Colonel  Burr.  He  soon  became  the 
family  physician  to  these  distinguished  persons.  In  1795  he 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Botany  in  Columbia  College,  for 
which  position  his  diligent  application  to  this  science  in  Lon- 


DAVID   HOSACK. 


105 


don  had  admirably  fitted  him.  At  the  end  of  his  first  course 
he  published  a  syllabus  of  his  lectures,  afterward  inserted  in 
his  Medical  Essays.  In  1795,  a^so>  tne  yellow  fever  reached 
New  York,  and  the  violence  of  the  epidemic  afforded  ample 
opportunity  to  young  medical  men  to  distinguish  themselves. 
Dr.  Hosack  at  this  time  attracted  the  especial  attention  of 
Dr.  Samuel  Bard,  one  of  his  former  preceptors,  who  soon  after 
took  him  into  partnership.  This  was  a  preparatory  step  to  Dr. 
Bard's  retiring  from  the  profession,  which  he  did  three  or  four 
years  later,  leaving  Dr.  Hosack  in  the  enjoyment  of  an  exten- 
sive and  profitable  practice. 

Having  lost  his  infant  son  during  his  absence  in  England 
and  his  wife  not  long  after  his  return,  Dr.  Hosack  married, 
Decmber  21,  1797,  Mary,  daughter  of  James  and  Mary  Dar- 
ragh  Eddy,  of  Philadelphia.  By  this  marriage  he  had  nine 
children. 

Upon  the  death,  in  1797,  of  Dr.  William  Pitt  Smith,  his  chair 
of  Materia  Medica  in  Columbia  College  was  assigned  to  Dr. 
Hosack,  in  addition  to  the  one  of  Botany  already  held  by  the 
latter.  He  continued  to  fill  these  two  professorships  until 
1807,  when  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of  the 
State  of  New  York  was  established,  in  which  he  was  chosen 
Professor  of  Surgery  and  Midwifery.  He  soon,  however,  re- 
linquished this  chair  for  that  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of 
Physic  and  Clinical  Medicine.  The  Analectic  Magazine  for 
1814  contained  a  notice  of  an  introductory  lecture  given  in  the 
last-named  chair,  which  had  been  published.  It  says  that, 
after  an  opening  statement  on  another  matter,  "  Dr.  Hosack 
proceeds  to  point  out  what  he  deems  the  proper  method  of 
cultivating  the  science  of  medicine.  He  recommends  the  in- 
ductive system  of  philosophizing  as  the  only  sure  means  of 
acquiring  correct  methods  in  science,  and  enforces  the  same 
by  the  celebrated  examples  of  Bacon,  Boyle,  and  Newton  in 
physics,  of  Reid,  Bentley,  and  Stewart  in  metaphysics,  and  of 
Hippocrates,  Sydenham,  and  Boerhaave  in  medicine." 

Meanwhile  Dr.  Hosack  had  become  prominently  known  for 
his  success  in  the  treatment  of  yellow  fever,  which  had  visited 
New  York  in  four  successive  summers,  beginning  with  1795,  an(^ 
afterward  in  1803,  1805,  1819,  and  1822.  On  many  occasions, 
when  disease  suspected  to  be  yellow  fever  broke  out,  he  was 
called  upon  by  the  Board  of  Health  of  New  York  for  a  report 
8 


I06  PIONEERS   OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

as  to  its  real  nature,  for  if  the  fears  of  his  fellow-citizens 
were  groundless  his  statement  would  be  sure  to  allay  them. 

Of  Dr.  Hosack  in  the  professorial  chair,  Dr.  Minturn  Post, 
one  of  his  pupils,  has  said :  "  In  no  respect  was  Dr.  Hosack 
more  remarkable  than  as  a  lecturer ;  gifted  with  a  command- 
ing person  and  a  piercing  eye,  of  an  ardent  temperament  and 
of  strong  convictions,  his  manner  of  treating  the  various  sub- 
jects connected  with  his  professorship  was  at  once  bold,  im- 
pressive, and  eloquent.  .  .  .  His  great  object  was  to  direct  the 
student  to  the  importance  of  the  subject  under  examination, 
to  lead  him  by  his  eloquence,  and  to  rivet  his  attention  by  his 
earnestness,  and  no  man  ever  succeeded  better  as  a  public  lec- 
turer in  attaining  these  results.  .  .  .  Dr.  Hosack  was  gifted 
with  a  fine,  sonorous  voice,  great  play  of  expression,  and  a 
remarkable  vivacity  of  manner — qualities  which,  being  as  it 
were  contagious,  begat  in  his  youthful  auditory  a  kindred  sym- 
pathy." In  closing  his  account  above  quoted  Dr.  Post  re- 
marks :  "  He  lived  in  memorable  times,  before  the  great  men 
of  the  Revolution  had  passed  away ;  had  seen  and  conversed 
with  the  most  eminent  of  the  age  ;  had  listened  to  the  inspired 
song  of  Burns,  tuned  to  sweet  cadence,  from  his  own  lips; 
was  intimate  with  Rush,  and  Gregory,  and  Sir  Joseph  Banks, 
and  was  the  friend  of  Clinton  and  Hamilton."  The  friendship 
of  Hamilton  was  probably  won  for  the  most  part  by  his  suc- 
cess in  saving  the  life  of  a  son  of  the  general  sick  with  scar- 
let fever,  whose  case  for  a  time  was  deemed  hopeless.  This 
friendship  was  conspicuous  on  every  occasion,  and  was  termi- 
nated only  on  that  day  when  Dr.  Hosack  accompanied  Hamil- 
ton across  the  Hudson  River  to  his  fatal  duel  with  Colonel 
Burr. 

Dr.  Hosack  is  often  mentioned  as  one  of  the  leading  pro- 
moters of  science  of  his  time.  "  His  love  of  botanical  science," 
says  his  son,  "induced  him  to  found  the  Elgin*  Botanic  Gar- 
den, which  he  did  at  his  own  individual  expense,  as  early  as 
1801.  It  was  situated  about  three  and  a  half  miles  from  the 
city  of  New  York.  It  consisted  of  about  twenty  acres  of  land 
on  the  middle  road.f  It  was  selected  from  its  varied  soil  as 

*  So  named  after  the  village  in  Scotland  where  his  father  was  born. 

f  The  location  is  given  in  Mrs.  Lamb's  History  of  New  York  as  lying  be- 
tween Fifth  and  Sixth  Avenues  and  stretching  from  Forty-seventh  to  Fifty- 
first  Streets. 


DAVID   HOSACK.  lOj 

peculiarly  adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  different  vegetable 
productions.  The  grounds  were  skilfully  laid  out  and  planted 
with  some  of  the  most  rare  and  beautiful  of  our  forest  trees. 
An  extensive  and  ornamental  conservatory  was  erected  for  the 
cultivation  of  tropical  and  greenhouse  plants,  as  well  as  those 
devoted  to  medical  purposes,  more  especially  those  of  our  own 
country. 

"  At  this  time  there  were  under  cultivation  nearly  fifteen 
hundred  species  of  American  plants,  besides  a  considerable 
number  of  rare  and  valuable  exotics.  To  this  collection  addi- 
tions were  made  from  time  to  time  from  various  parts  of  Europe 
as  well  as  from  the  East  and  West  Indies.  It  was  the  intention 
of  the  founder  of  this  beautiful  garden,  had  his  means  been 
more  ample,  to  devote  it  to  the  sciences  generally,  more  espe- 
cially those  of  zoology  and  mineralogy.  This,  however,  he 
was  compelled  from  want  of  fortune  to  relinquish,  hoping  that 
the  State  of  New  York  would  at  some  future  day  be  induced 
to  carry  out  the  plan  as  suggested  by  him  similar  in  all  respects 
to  that  of  the  Garden  of  Plants  in  Paris ;  but  in  this  he  was 
disappointed.  The  State  purchased  the  garden  from  him,  but, 
like  many  other  public  works  unconnected  with  politics,  it  was 
suffered  to  go  to  ruin.  While  it  was  in  his  possession  it  af- 
forded him  many  a  pleasant  hour  of  recreation,  and  served  to 
abstract  him  from  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  an  arduous  pro- 
fession." Frederick  Pursh,  author  of  the  Flora  Septentriona- 
lis,  was  for  several  years  curator  of  this  garden. 

A  jail  society,  which  had  existed  in  New  York  to  supply 
provisions  to  prisoners  for  debt,  was  developed  by  Hosack  into 
the  Humane  Society,  with  broader  aims  and  means.  The  City 
Dispensary  received  no  less  his  care  and  attention.  He  vigor- 
ously advocated  a  separate  hospital  building  for  contagious 
diseases,  the  strict  enforcement  of  quarantine  regulations,  the 
substitution  of  stone  piers  for  wooden  ones,  and  urged  that 
the  city's  sewers  should  discharge  at  the  outer  ends  of  the 
piers  instead  of  at  the  bulkhead  line. 

His  friends  often  wondered  that  Dr.  Hosack  found  time  to 
contribute  so  much  as  he  did  to  the  literature  of  his  profession. 
At  an  early  period  he  began  the  publication  of  the  Medical 
and  Philosophical  Register,  a  quarterly  journal,  in  which  Dr, 
John  W.  Francis  was  associated  with  him.  He  afterward  pub- 
lished three  volumes  of  his  Medical  Essays,  containing  occa- 


108  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

sional  addresses,  introductory  lectures  to  his  regular  courses, 
many  practical  papers  on  medical  subjects,  etc.  He  also  pub- 
lished an  extensive  appendix  to  a  work  on  the  Practice  of 
Medicine,  by  Dr.  Thomas,  of  Salisbury,  England.  Adopting 
the  nosological  arrangement  as  a  system  best  calculated  to 
illustrate  diseases,  he  was  induced  to  prepare  a  work  on  that 
subject,  which  ran  through  several  editions. 

Botany  was  not  the  only  branch  of  science  in  which  he  be- 
came interested  while  abroad.  To  quote  from  a  sketch  of  his 
life  by  a  friend:  "He  attended  in  the  winter  of  -1193-94.  the 
first  course  of  lectures  on  mineralogy  that  was  delivered  in 
London  by  Schmeisser,  a  pupil  of  Werner.  With  this  addi- 
tional knowledge  of  mineralogy,  which  Dr.  Hosack  had  begun 
to  study  at  Edinburgh,  he  continued  to  augment  the  cabinet  of 
minerals  which  he  had  commenced  in  Scotland.  This  collec- 
tion was  brought  by  him  to  the  United  States,  and  was,  we  be- 
lieve, the  first  cabinet  that  crossed  the  Atlantic ;  it  was  after- 
ward deposited  in  Princeton  College,  in  rooms  appropriated 
by  the  trustees,  but  fitted  up  at  the  expense  of  the  donor, 
similar  to  those  at  the  J&cole  des  Mines  at  Paris.  To  render 
this  donation  immediately  useful,  it  was  accompanied  by  a 
collection  of  the  most  important  works  on  mineralogy." 

Having  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances,  and 
being  fond  of  company,  Dr.  Hosack  used  to  set  apart  his  Sat- 
urday evenings  for  entertaining  them.  "  Surrounded  by  his 
large  and  costly  library,  his  house  was  the  resort  of  the  learned 
and  enlightened  from  every  part  of  the  world.  No  traveller 
from  abroad  rested  satisfied  without  a  personal  interview  with 
him ;  and,  at  his  evening  soirte,  the  literati,  the  philosopher, 
and  the  statesman,  the  skilful  in  natural  science,  and  the  ex- 
plorer of  new  regions,  the  archaeologist  and  the  theologue  met 
together,  participators  in  the  recreation  of  familiar  inter- 
course." Many  a  distinguished  American  and  many  a  for- 
eign visitor,  coming  with  a  letter  from  some  European 
friend  of  Hosack,  has  left  on  record  his  delightful  ex- 
perience in  a  visit  to  the  doctor,  either  at  his  city  house  or 
his  place  in  the  country. 

Of  the  scientific  honours  most  prized  by  Americans  in  his 
day — membership  in  European  societies — Dr.  Hosack  had  a 
goodly  share.  He  also  received  the  honour  of  having  a  genus 
of  plants  named  for  him.  The  various  species  of  Hosackia, 


DAVID   HOSACK.  IOg 

of  which  there  are  some  thirty,  are  herbs  and  shrubs  growing 
in  the  Southern  and  Southwestern  States  and  in  Mexico. 

His  second  wife  having  died,  Dr.  Hosack  married  Mrs. 
Magdalena  Coster,  widow  of  the  Holland  merchant,  Henry  A. 
Coster.  Some  time  after  this  event  he  retired  from  his  pro- 
fession and  spent  the  rest  of  his  life,  except  the  winter  months, 
on  the  beautiful  estate  at  Hyde  Park,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hud- 
son, which  he  had  owned  for  a  number  of  years.  Here  he  de- 
voted himself  to  agriculture  and  to  growing  plants  of  botan- 
ical interest.  "He  carried  with  him,"  his  son  remarks,  " the 
same  ardour  and  zeal  which  had  been  so  characteristic  of  him 
in  his  professional  career.  He  introduced  into  the  country 
many  of  the  finest  breeds  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  swine,  which  he 
imported  at  great  expense  from  abroad.  The  grounds  were 
cultivated  in  the  best  possible  manner,  and  the  most  esteemed 
fruits  and  vegetable  productions  of  the  country  were  made  to 
thrive  in  the  greatest  luxury  possible." 

In  the  autumn  of  1835  Dr.  Hosack  removed  as  usual  to  his 
city  residence,  and  a  few  weeks  after  was  seized  with  apoplexy 
which  terminated  his  existence.  One  morning  in  December  he 
went  out  and  did  some  business  errands,  and  on  his  return 
home  found  he  was  paralyzed  in  his  right  arm.  His  speech 
was  also  affected.  He  received  immediate  attention  from  his 
son,  Dr.  A.  E.  Hosack,  and  later  from  several  of  his  profes- 
sional friends.  But  their  efforts  were  of  no  avail.  His  symp- 
toms became  worse,  and  four  days  after  the  attack,  on  De- 
cember 22d,  he  passed  away.  His  body  was  placed  in  the 
family  vault  in  the  marble  cemetery  in  Second  Street. 

One  of  the  surest  ways  in  which  an  eminent  man  can  cause 
his  influence  to  live  after  him  is  in  training  up  younger  men  to 
lives  of  usefulness.  This  Dr.  Hosack  was  constantly  doing. 
"  I  can  scarcely  recollect  the  time,"  says  his  son,  "  when  he 
was  without  some  such  protege."  At  one  time  it  was  the  son 
of  a  New  York  carpenter,  who,  unfortunately,  fell  a  victim  to 
his  devotion  to  yellow-fever  patients  in  the  epidemic  of  1798. 
At  another  it  was  a  young  Frenchman,  who,  without  means, 
had  come  to  America  to  study  its  flora,  his  family  having  been 
forced  to  leave  France  on  account  of  the  Revolution  there. 
Dr.  Hosack  took  him  into  his  family  and  educated  him  as  a 
physician.  He  returned  to  France  and  became  eminent  as  a 
botanist.  This  was  Prof.  Delile,  who  accompanied  Napoleon 


IIO  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

to  Egypt  as  the  botanist  of  his  corps  de  savants,  and  was  after- 
ward superintendent  of  the  Jardin  des  Plantes  at  Montpellier. 
Among  Dr.  Hosack's  regular  pupils  at  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians and  Surgeons  was  John  Torrey,  and  many  other  students 
who  heard  his  lectures  at  the  medical  school  or  at  Columbia 
College  had  whatever  of  inclination  toward  botany  they  pos- 
sessed greatly  quickened  by  the  enthusiasm  and  eloquence  of 
Dr.  Hosack. 


AMOS    EATON. 


AMOS   EATON. 
1776-1842. 

PROF.  AMOS  EATON  was  prominent  among  those  who  culti- 
vated science  in  the  earlier  half  of  this  century,  who  laboured  to 
popularize  the  study  and  make  it  accessible  to  the  masses. 
American  geology  and  botany  owe  much  to  him.  His  books 
on  those  subjects  have  two  special  merits — they  were  among 
the  first  published  in  which  a  systematic  treatment  for  America 
was  attempted,  and  they  were  written  throughout  in  a  language 
that  all  could  read. 

Amos  Eaton  was  born  in  Chatham,  Columbia  County,  N.  Y., 
May  17,  1776,  and  died  in  Troy,  N.  Y.,  May  6,  1842.  His  father, 
Captain  Abel  Eaton,  was  a  farmer  in  comfortable  circum- 
stances, and  of  the  best  standing  as  a  citizen.  The  family  was 
descended  from  a  John  Eaton,  who  came  from  Dover  in  Eng- 
land about  1635,  and  two  years  later  settled  in  Dedham,  Mass., 
where  descendants  of  the  elder  line  still  reside.  The  scholastic 
tendencies  which  determined  the  character  of  his  career  appear 
to  have  shown  themselves  at  an  early  age,  for  we  find  that  in 
1790,  when  Amos  was  only  fourteen  years  old,  he  was  appoint- 
ed to  make  a  Fourth-of-July  oration,  and  acquitted  himself  ac- 
ceptably in  the  effort.  Serving  as  a  chain  bearer  in  the  sur- 
veying of  some  land,  he  acquired  a  taste  for  that  business. 
He  had  no  instruments,  and,  in  order  to  obtain  them,  he  ar- 
ranged with  a  blacksmith  to  "  blow  and  strike "  for  him  by 
day,  in  return  for  which  the  blacksmith  should  help  him  make 
instruments  at  night.  After  several  weeks'  work,  a  needle, 
magnetized  from  kitchen  tongs,  and  a  working  chain  were 
turned  out.  A  compass  case  was  made  out  of  the  bottom  of 
an  old  pewter  plate,  well  smoothed,  polished,  and  graduated ; 
and  the  young  man,  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  was  ready  to  do 
little  jobs  of  surveying. 

He  fitted  himself  for  college  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  Pot- 

111 


112  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

ter,  of  Spencertown  ;  entered  Williams  College,  and  was  gradu- 
ated thence  in  1799,  with  a  high  standing  in  science.  On  Octo- 
ber i6th  of  the  same  year  he  married,  at  Chatham,  Polly,  daugh- 
ter of  Malachi  and  Mary  (McCall)  Thomas,  who  died  three  years 
later,  leaving  him  a  son.  He  prepared  himself  for  the  legal 
profession,  studying  law  with  the  Hon.  Elisha  Williams,  of 
Spencertown,  and  the  Hon.  Josiah  Ogden,  of  New  York.  An 
association  which  he  formed  in  New  York  with  Dr.  David  Ho- 
sack  and  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  the  most  distinguished  scien- 
tific men  in  the  city  at  the  time,  marked  another  determinative 
point  in  his  career  ;  for,  under  their  instruction,  he  became  in- 
terested in  the  natural  sciences,  and  particularly  in  botany. 
So  earnest  did  he  become  in  these  studies  that,  having  bor- 
rowed Kirwan's  Mineralogy,  he  made  a  manuscript  copy  of  the 
whole  work.  Having  been  admittd  to  the  bar  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  New  York,  he  settled  in  Catskill  as  a  lawyer  and  land 
agent,  and  continued  his  studies  in  science.  At  this  place  he 
began,  in  1810,  a  course  of  popular  lectures  on  botany,  which 
is  believed  to  have  been  the  first  attempted  in  the  United 
States.  In  connection  with  the  lectures  he  compiled  a  small 
elementary  treatise.  Dr.  Hosack  commended  him  as  being 
the  first  in  the  field  with  this  course,  saying,  "You  have  adopt- 
ed the  true  system  of  education,  and  very  properly  address 
yourself  to  the  memory." 

Finding  that  his  taste  for  the  incidents  of  legal  practice  was 
diminishing,  and  his  interest  in  science  was  growing  upon  him, 
Mr.  Eaton  resolved  to  abandon  the  law  and  devote  himself  to 
the  more  congenial  pursuit.  He  removed  to  New  Haven  in 
1815,  and  there  placed  himself  under  the  tuition  of  Prof.  Silli- 
man,  who  was  lecturing  on  chemistry,  geology,  and  miner- 
alogy. He  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  Prof.  Silliman's  library 
and  of  that  of  Prof.  Ives,  in  which  works  on  botany  and  ma- 
teria  medica  were  prominent,  and  was  a  diligent  student  of 
the  college  cabinet  of  minerals.  Having  become  well  grounded 
in  the  sciences  he  took  up  his  abode  near  Williams  College,  where 
he  gave  courses  of  lectures  to  volunteer  classes  of  the  students 
on  botany,  mineralogy,  and  geology,  and  awakened  a  perma- 
nent interest  in  the  natural  sciences.  An  interesting  description 
of  his  personality  at  this  time,  when  he  was  in  his  prime,  is  given 
by  Prof.  Albert  Hopkins,  who  speaks  of  him  as  "  of  striking 
personage,  a  large  form,  somewhat  portly  and  dignified,  though 


AMOS   EATON.  II3 

entirely  free  from  what  is  commonly  called  starch.  His  face 
was  highly  intellectual,  the  forehead  high  and  somewhat  re- 
treating, locality  strongly  marked,  and  the  organs  of  observa- 
tion and  compassion  well  developed.  His  hair  was  black,  and, 
being  combed  back,  rendered  his  fine  physiognomy  still  more 
striking."  In  the  same  year  the  first  edition  was  published  of 
Prof.  Eaton's  Manual  of  Botany,  a  work  the  appearance  of 
which,  according  to  Dr.  Lewis  C.  Beck,  gave  an  impulse  to  the 
study  of  botany  in  New  England  and  New  York,  which  had 
been  hampered  by  the  want  of  a  manual  in  English.  The  only 
descriptive  work  previous  to  this  one  was  that  of  Pursch,  in 
which  the  descriptions  were  in  Latin.  The  Manual  was  added 
to  and  became  fuller,  in  successive  editions,  till  the  eighth 
edition,  published  in  1840,  was  a  large  octavo  volume  of  625 
pages,  known  as  the  North  American  Botany  of  Profs.  Eaton 
and  Wright,  and  contained  descriptions  of  5,267  species  of 
plants. 

From  Williams  College  the  lectures  were  extended,  in  the 
shape  of  courses,  with  practical  instructions  to  classes,  to  the 
larger  towns  of  New  England  and  New  York.  Prof.  Eaton 
was  greatly  aided  in  this  enterprise  by  the  patronage  and  en- 
couragement he  had  received  from  the  faculty  and  students 
of  Williams  College,  and  the  fame  he  derived  from  his  lectures 
there ;  and  he  made  an  acknowledgment  of  this  fact  in  dedi- 
cating the  second  edition  of  his  botany  to  the  president  and 
professors,  when  he  said,  "The  science  of  botany  is  indebted 
to  you  for  its  first  introduction  into  the  interior  of  the  North- 
ern States,  and  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  a  passport  into  the 
scientific  world."  In  the  course  of  two  or  three  years,  says 
Prof.  H.  B.  Nason,  to  whose  Biographical  Record  of  the  Rensse- 
laer  Polytechnic  Institute  we  are  most  largely  indebted  for  the 
material  for  this  sketch,  "  Prof.  Eaton  diffused  a  great  amount 
of  knowledge  on  the  subjects  of  his  lectures ;  and  so  far  excited 
the  curiosity  and  enthusiasm  of  many  young  students  that 
there  sprang  up,  as  a  result  of  his  labours,  an  army  of  botanists 
and  geologists."  The  late  Prof.  Albert  Hopkins,  of  Williams 
College,  accrediting  Prof.  Eaton  with  being  one  of  the  first  to 
popularize  science  in  the  Northern  States,  mentioned  as  among 
his  special  qualifications  for  the  task  an  easy  flow  of  language, 
a  popular  address,  and  a  generous  enthusiasm  in  matters  of 
science,  which  easily  communicated  itself  to  his  pupils.  He 


114 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


adds :  "  Prof.  Eaton  was  among  the  first  in  this  country  to 
study  Nature  in  the  field  with  his  classes.  In  pursuance  of  this 
idea,  he  used  to  make  an  annual  excursion  with  Rensselaer 
School,  sometimes  leading  these  expeditions  in  person,  at  others 
deputing  some  competent  teacher  to  take  the  lead.  The  cause 
of  natural  history  in  Williams  College  owes,  undoubtedly,  a 
good  deal  to  Prof.  Eaton.  I  think  his  zeal  in  the  department 
of  botany  led  Prof.  Dewey  to  direct  his  discriminating  mind 
to  the  study  of  plants,  a  study  which  he  pursued  further  than 
Prof.  Eaton  had  done  in  certain  lines.  ...  At  this  time,  also, 
Dr.  Emmons  took  the  field.  In  fact,  natural  history  came  on 
with  the  spring  tide,  and  has  never  lost  the  impulse  since." 
While  at  Albany,  in  1818,  on  the  invitation  of  Governor  Clin- 
ton, delivering  a  course  of  lectures  before  the  members  of  the 
Legislature  of  New  York,  Prof.  Eaton  became  acquainted  with 
many  leading  men  of  the  State,  and  interested  them  in  geology 
and  its  application  by  means  of  surveys  to  agriculture.  Here 
was  planted  the  idea  which  eventually  fructified  in  that  great 
work,  The  Natural  History  of  New  York.  In  the  same  year 
Prof.  Eaton  published  his  Index  to  the  Geology  of  the  North- 
ern States,  which  has  been  pronounced  "  the  first  attempt  at  a 
general  arrangement  of  geological  strata  in  North  America." 
Although  under  the  undeveloped  condition  of  geology  at  the 
time,  with  the  defective  knowledge  even  among  its  advanced 
students,  this  book  could  not  fail  to  contain  many  state- 
ments now  known  to  be  errors,  it  must  be  recognised  as  a 
creditable  and  valuable  effort.  An  interesting  view  of  the 
conditions  of  geology  at  the  time  and  of  the  method  of  study 
is  given  in  a  letter  which  Prof.  Eaton  wrote  to  Mr.  Henry  R. 
Schoolcraft,  in  1820,  while  preparing  a  second  volume  of  his 
Index.  In  it  he  said :  "  I  have  written  the  whole  over  anew, 
and  extended  it  to  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  i2mo. 
I  have  taken  great  pains  to  collect  facts  in  this  district  dur- 
ing the  two  years  since  my  first  edition  was  published,  but  I 
am  rather  deficient  in  my  knowledge  of  secondary  and  alluvial 
formations.  I  wish  to  trouble  you  with  a  few  inquiries  on  that 
subject.  From  what  knowledge  I  have  been  able  to  obtain 
in  that  department,  I  am  inclined  to  arrange  the  secondary 
class  thus  :  Breccia,  compact,  or  shell  limestone ;  gypsum,  sec- 
ondary sandstone.  I  leave  much,  also,  for  peculiar  local  for- 
mations. A  gentleman  presented  specimens  to  the  Troy  Ly- 


AMOS   EATON.  I! 5 

ceum,  from  Illinois,  of  gypsum  and  secondary  sandstone,  and 
informed  me  that  the  latter  overlaid  the  former  in  regular 
structure.  Myron  Holly  and  others  have  given  me  similar 
specimens,  which  they  represent  as  being  similarly  situated, 
from  localities  in  the  western  part  of  this  State.  This  secondary 
sandstone  is  sometimes  more  or  less  calcareous.  I  believe  it 
is  used  for  a  cement  by  the  canal  company,  which  hardens 
under  water.  Will  you  do  me  the  favour  to  settle  this  question  ? 
On  your  way  to  Detroit  you  may  perhaps,  without  material  in* 
convenience,  collect  facts  of  importance  to  me  in  reference  to 
secondary  and  alluvial  formations.  Anything  transmitted  to 
me  by  the  middle  of  April  on  these  subjects  will  be  in  season, 
because  I  shall  not  have  printed  all  the  transition  part  before 
that  time.  Have  you  any  knowledge  of  the  strata  consti- 
tuting the  Rocky  Mountains  ?  Is  it  primitive,  or  is  it  gray- 
wacke,  like  Catskill  Mountains  ?  I  have  said  in  a  note  that 
after  you  and  Dr.  E.  James  set  foot  upon  it  we  shall  no 
longer  be  ignorant  of  it.  I  intend  to  kindle  a  blaze  of 
geological  zeal  before  you  return.  I  have  adapted  the  style 
of  my  index  to  the  capacity  of  ladies,  plough-joggers,  and 
mechanics." 

Prof.  Eaton  also  delivered  lectures  at  Lenox  Academy  and 
the  Medical  College  at  Castleton,  Vt.,  where  he  was  appointed 
Professor  of  Natural  History  in  1820.  He  gave  lectures  and 
practical  instructions  in  Troy,  and  thus  laid  the  foundation  for 
the  establishment  there,  as  a  direct  result  of  his  work,  of  the 
Lyceum  of  Natural  History ;  and  it  is  said  that  in  the  fall  of 
1818  Troy  could  boast  of  a  more  extensive  collection  of 
American  geological  specimens  than  could  be  found  at  any 
other  literary  institution  in  this  country.  The  geological  and 
agricultural  survey  of  Albany  and  Rensselaer  Counties,  made 
in  1820  and  1821,  by  Prof.  Eaton  and  Drs.  T.  Romeyn  and 
Lewis  C.  Beck,  at  the  expense  of  the  Hon.  Stephen  Van  Rens- 
selaer, is  believed  to  have  been  the  beginning  of  such  surveys  in 
this  country,  and  was  described  by  Prof.  Silliman,  in  his  Jour- 
nal, as  a  novel  attempt.  Next  was  a  geological  survey  by 
Prof.  Eaton,  also  at  the  instance  of  Mr.  Van  Rensselaer,  of 
the  district  adjoining  the  Erie  Canal,  the  result  of  which  was 
published  in  1824,  in  a  report  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  pages, 
with  a  profile  section  of  rock  formations,  from  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  across  Massachusetts  and  New  York,  to  Lake  Erie. 


U6  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Governor  Seward  said  of  this  work,  in  the  Introduction  to  the 
Natural  History  of  the  State  of  New  York,  that  it  "marked  an 
era  in  the  progress  of  geology  in  this  country.  It  is  in  some 
respects  inaccurate,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  its  talented 
and  indefatigable  author  was  without  a  guide  in  exploring  the 
older  formations,  and  that  he  described  rocks  which  no  geolo- 
gist had  at  that  time  attempted  to  classify.  Rocks  were  then 
classified  chiefly  by  their  mineralogical  characters,  and  the  aid 
which  the  science  has  since  learned  to  derive  from  fossils  in 
determining  the  chronology  and  classification  of  rocks  was 
scarcely  known  here,  and  had  only  just  begun  to  be  appre- 
ciated in  Europe.  We  are  indebted,  nevertheless,  to  Prof. 
Eaton  for  the  commencement  of  that  independence  of  Euro- 
pean classification  which  has  been  found  indispensable  in  de- 
scribing the  New  York  system.  .  .  .  Prof.  Eaton  enumerated 
nearly  all  the  rocks  in  western  New  York,  in  their  order  of 
succession,  and  his  enumeration  has,  with  one  or  two  excep- 
tions, proved  correct.  It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  that  he  recog- 
nised, at  so  early  a  period,  the  old  red  sandstone  on  the 
Catskill  Mountains,  a  discovery  the  reality  of  which  has  since 
been  proved  by  fossil  tests." 

In  1824  Prof.  Eaton  was  placed  at  the  head,  as  "  Senior 
Professor,"  of  the  School  of  Science  founded  by  the  Hon. 
Stephen  Van  Rensselaer  at  Troy,  N.  Y.,  then  called  the  Rens- 
selaer  School,  now  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute.  He 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  this  position.  He  introduced 
and  developed  here  a  system  of  instruction  in  which  the  stu- 
dents were  made  experimenters  and  workers,  and,  in  place  of 
recitations,  delivered  lectures  to  one  another.  The  success  of 
this  method  was  such  that  some  one  or  other  of  its  features 
were  introduced  into  other  schools. 

Summarizing  his  career  in  brief,  Prof.  Nason  says,  in  his 
biography :  "  In  developing  the  botany  and  geology  of  the 
Northern  States,  Prof.  Eaton  rightfully  ranks  among  the  pio- 
neers of  the  new  era  of  the  natural  sciences  in  this  country. 
His  efforts  in  various  departments  of  natural  history  were  a 
rich  gift  to  New  England,  New  York,  and  even  to  the  whole 
country,  for  which  the  country  owes  him  a  debt  of  gratitude. 
Many  of  his  pupils  have  been  for  years  among  the  most  justly 
distinguished  scientific  men  of  the  country.  As  an  educator 
and  an  active  labourer  in  the  general  cause  of  natural  history 


AMOS   EATON. 


117 


in  America,  his  memory  will  long  be  cherished.  The  history 
of  natural  science  on  this  continent  can  never  be  faithfully 
written  without  giving  the  name  of  Amos  Eaton  an  honourable 
place.  It  was  he,  more  than  any  other  individual  in  the  United 
States,  who,  finding  the  natural  sciences  in  the  hands  of  the 
learned  few,  by  means  of  popular  lectures,  simplified  text- 
books, and  practical  instruction,  threw  them  broadcast  to 
the  many.  He  aimed  at  a  general  diffusion  of  the  natural 
sciences,  and  nobly  and  successfully  did  he  accomplish  his 
mission." 

Prof.  Eaton  is  described  as  having  been  a  kind  and  courte- 
ous gentleman,  whose  vast  acquirements  and  simple  habits  were 
pleasantly  characterized  by  Mrs.  Emma  Willard's  designation 
of  him  as  "the  Republican  Philosopher."  In  1803  he  married 
Sally,  a  daughter  of  Eleazar  and  Tryphena  (Beebe)  Cady,  and 
sister  of  Daniel  Cady,  afterward  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals 
of  New  York.  She  bore  him  five  sons.  After  her  death  he 
was  again  married,  October  20,  1816,  to  Anne,  daughter  of 
Lewis  and  Lydia  (Woodin)  Bradley,  by  whom  he  had  three 
sons  and  two  daughters.  She  having  died,  he  married,  August 
5,  1827,  Alice,  daughter  of  Benjamin  and  Alice  (Smith)  John- 
son, who  bore  him  one  son,  and  survived  him  about  four  years. 
Three  of  his  sons  adopted  scientific  pursuits  or  cultivated  sci- 
entific tastes.  One,  Hezekiah  Hulbert  Eaton,  was  Assistant 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  Transylvania  University,  but  died 
when  only  twenty-three  years  old.  Major  General  Amos  B. 
Eaton  was  an  officer  of  the  United  States  Army,  and  interested 
in  science.  A  daughter,  Sara  C.  Eaton,  was  a  teacher  of 
natural  sciences  and  the  modern  languages  in  a  young 
woman's  seminary  at  Monticello,  111.  A  grandson,  Daniel 
Cady  Eaton,  has  been  Professor  of  Botany  in  Yale  College 
since  1864. 

The  list  of  Prof.  Eaton's  books  includes  an  Elementary 
Treatise  on  Botany,  1810;  Manual  of  Botany,  1817;  Botanical 
Dictionary,  1817;  Botanical  Exercises,  1820;  Botanical  Gram- 
mar and  Dictionary,  1828;  Chemical  Notebook,  1821;  Chem- 
ical Instructor,  1822;  Zoological  Syllabus  and  Notebook, 
1822;  Cuvier's  Grand  Division,  1822;  Art  without  Science, 
1800;  Philosophical  Instructor,  1824;  Directions  for  Survey- 
ing and  Engineering,  1838;  Index  to  the  Geology  of  the 
Northern  States,  1818;  Geological  and  Agricultural  Survey  of 


Hg  PIONEERS   OF  SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  County  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  1820;  Geological  Nomenclature 
of  North  America,  1822 ;  Geological  and  Agricultural  Survey 
of  the  District  adjoining  the  Erie  Canal,  1824;  Geological 
Text-Books,  prepared  for  Popular  Lectures  on  North  American 
Geology,  1830;  and  Geological  Text-Book,  for  the  Troy 
class,  1841. 


GERARD    TROOST. 


GERARD   TROOST. 

1776-1850. 

GERARD  TROOST,  one  of  the  founders  and  first  President 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  was  born 
at  Bois-le-Duc,  Holland,  March  5,  1776,  and  died  in  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  August  14,  1850.  His  parents  were  Anna  Cornelia 
(Van  Heeck)  and  Everhard  Joseph  Troost.  He  attended  the 
Universities  of  Leyden  and  Amsterdam,  devoting  special  atten- 
tion to  chemistry,  geology,  and  natural  history ;  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  from  the  University  of  Leyden, 
and  that  of  Master  in  Pharmacy,  in  1801,  from  the  University 
of  Amsterdam.  He  practised  his  art  for  a  short  time  at 
Amsterdam  and  the  Hague ;  served  in  the  army  as  a  private 
soldier,  and  at  another  time  as  an  officer  of  the  first  class  in 
the  medical  department ;  and  during  these  periods  of  service 
was  wounded  in  the  thigh  and  in  the  head.  In  1807  he  went 
to  Paris,  under  the  patronage  of  Louis  Napoleon,  King  of 
Holland,  to  pursue  his  studies,  and  then  he  became  the  pupil 
and  associate  of  the  Abbe  Rene"  Just  Haiiy,  author  of  the  fa- 
mous system  of  crystallography.  For  this  distinguished  and 
most  excellent  man  he  ever  cherished  a  filial,  grateful,  and 
affectionate  respect.  One  of  the  last  letters  written  by  the 
illustrious  Haiiy  was  to  Troost  with  a  presentation  copy  of  his 
great  work.  While  in  Paris  he  translated  into  the  Dutch  lan- 
guage one  of  the  earlier  works  of  Alexander  von  Humboldt, 
The  Aspects  of  Nature.  This  service  brought  him  the  cordial 
thanks  of  the  author,  with  whom  he  maintained  a  friendly  -cor- 
respondence to  the  last. 

Dr.  Troost  travelled  in  France,  Italy,  Germany,  and  Switzer- 
land, and  collected  a  valuable  cabinet  of  minerals,  which  was 
purchased  by  the  King  of  Holland.  In  1809  this  king  ap- 
pointed Troost  to  accompany,  in  a  scientific  capacity,  a  naval 
expedition  to  Java.  He  was  captured  by  an  English  privateer 

119 


I2O  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

and  confined  for  some  time;  returned  to  Paris;  and'then  made 
his  way  to  La  Rochelle.  He  took  passage  from  a  northern 
port,  beyond  French  jurisdiction,  in  an  American  vessel,  for 
New  York,  whence  he  hoped  to  reach  the  East  Indies  under 
the  protection  of  our  flag.  This  vessel  was  captured  by  a 
French  privateer  and  Troost  was  kept  a  prisoner  till  the  French 
became  aware  of  his  true  name  and  character,  when  he  was  re- 
leased. He  went  at  once  to  Paris.  In  March,  1810,  he  was 
elected  a  correspondent  of  the  Museum  of  Natural  History  of 
Paris.  A  few  days  afterward  he  was  allowed  to  embark  again 
on  an  American  vessel  for  Philadelphia.  The  turn  of  political 
events  in  Europe,  among  which  was  the  abdication  of  Louis 
Napoleon  as  King  of  Holland  and  the  surrender  of  Java  to 
England,  caused  him  to  abandon  his  contemplated  visit  to  the 
East  Indies  and  to  remain  in  the  United  States. 

His  decision  to  remain  here  may  have  been  partly  due  to 
his  forming  the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Margaret  Tage,  of  Phila- 
delphia, whom  he  married  on  the  i4th  of  January,  1811.  They 
had  two  children — Caroline,  who  married  Mr.  A.  G.  Stein,  a 
civil  engineer,  and  went  with  her  husband  to  live  in  Mobile. 
The  second  child  was  Louis,  who  became  a  civil  engineer,  and 
removed  to  Mobile,  where  he  resided  until  his  death.  Mrs. 
Troost  died  in  1819,  when  Louis  was  little  more  than  a  year 
old.  The  facts  here  given  in  regard  to  the  parentage  and  mar- 
riage of  Dr.  Troost  and  the  birth  of  his  children  are  derived 
from  the  record  in  an  old  family  Bible,  kindly  transcribed  by 
his  grandson,  Mr.  Louis  Stein,  of  Mobile.  The  entries  are  in 
Latin,  and  presumably  in  Dr.  Troost's  own  hand.  Dr.  Troost 
married  a  second  wife,  a  Mrs.  O'Riley,  who  by  admirable  house- 
keeping greatly  aided  him  in  the  conduct  of  his  affairs.  There 
were  no  children  by  this  marriage. 

A  brother  of  Dr.  Troost,  Dr.  Benoit  Troost,  came  to  the 
United  States,  and  was  living  at  Kansas,  Mo.,  when  Gerard 
Troost  died. 

In  1812  Dr.  Troost  participated  in  the  foundation  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  Philadelphia  and  became  its 
first  president.  Of  the  origin  of  this  society,  Dr.  W.  S.  W. 
Ruschenberger,  from  whose  account  we  derive  much  of  the 
material  of  this  sketch,  says  there  were  some  young  persons  in 
Philadelphia  disposed  to  study  the  laws  of  creation.  Occupied 
with  their  business  during  the  day,  they  were  accustomed  to 


GERARD   TROOST.  I2i 

converse  concerning  natural  phenomena  when  they  met  in  the 
evening,  without  appointment,  at  the  ordinary  places  of  resort. 
They  very  often  met  at  the  apothecary's  shop  of  John  Speak- 
man,  of  whom  Thomas  Say  was  subsequently  the  business 
partner,  at  the  corner  of  Market  and  Second  Streets.  At  one 
of  these  meetings  Mr.  Speakman  suggested  that  if  the  young 
men  could  be  induced  to  meet  at  stated  times,  where  they 
would  be  secure  from  interruption,  to  communicate  to  one  an- 
other what  they  might  learn  about  the  phenomena  of  Nature, 
they  would  derive  more  pleasure  and  profit  than  from  desultory 
and  irregular  conversation.  The  suggestion  was  seconded  by 
Jacob  Gilliams,  and  a  meeting  was  appointed  for  the  next 
Saturday  evening  at  Mr.  Speakman's  house,  for  the  young  men 
and  such  of  their  friends  as  might  be  interested  in  the  matter  : 
Six  persons  were  present  at  the  meeting,  January  25,  1812: 
Dr.  Gerard  Troost,  Dr.  Camillus  Macmahon  Mann,  Jacob  Gil- 
liams, John  Shinn,  Jr.,  Nicholas  Parmentier,  and  John  Speak- 
man, host.  The  meeting  was  described  in  the  minutes  as  "a 
meeting  of  gentlemen,  friends  of  science  and  of  rational  dis- 
posal of  leisure  moments  "  ;  and  it  was  agreed  that  the  exclu- 
sive object  of  the  society  should  be  the  cultivation  of  natural 
science.  For  the  furtherance  of  this  purpose  all  matters  of 
politics  and  religion  were  rigorously  excluded,  even  allusions  to 
them  being  forbidden.  It  was  perhaps  from  this  determina- 
tion, Dr.  Ruschenberger  suggests,  that  "  the  erroneous  notion 
sprang,  which,  according  to  tradition,  prevailed  with  some,  that 
the  object  of  the  institution  was  to  favour  religious  infidelity." 
The  constitution  of  the  society  was  agreed  upon  on  the  iyth 
of  March,  and  the  name  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  was 
adopted  on  the  2ist  of  that  month,  which  date  was  established 
as  that  of  the  beginning  of  the  institution.  On  that  day,  too, 
the  members  agreed  "  to  contribute  to  the  formation  of  a  mu- 
seum of  natural  history,  a  library  of  works  of  science,  a  chem- 
ical experimental  laboratory,  an  experimental  philosophical 
apparatus,  and  every  other  desirable  appendage  or  conven- 
ience for  the  illustration  and  advancement  of  natural  knowl- 
edge, and  for  the  common  benefit  of  all  the  individuals  who 
may  be  admitted  members  of  our  institution."  Among  the 
first  donors  of  minerals  were  Dr.  Troost,  Mr.  Isaac  Lea,  Dr. 
Hays,  and  Mr.  S.  Hazard.  When  the  small  room,  121  North 
Second  Street,  hired  about  the  ist  of  April,  was  occupied,  the 
9 


I22  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

members  came  foward  with  their  gifts  to  serve  as  the  nucleus 
of  the  museum  and  library.  Among  them  was  Dr.  Troost, 
with  some  artificial  crystals,  prepared  by  himself.  On  the  oc- 
casion of  the  election  of  officers,  May  7,  1812,  Dr.  Troost  was 
chosen  president.  He  held  this  office  five  years,  or  till  1817, 
when  he  resigned  and  was  succeeded  by  William  Maclure.  On 
the  i5th  of  August,  1812,  the  collection  of  minerals  previously 
purchased  from  Dr.  Seybert  by  Mr.  Speakman  came  formally 
into  the  possession  of  the  society,  which  formed  a  kind  of 
joint-stock  company  to  pay  for  it  and  hold  it.  Soon  after  this, 
Dr.  Troost  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  mineralogy  before 
the  academy. 

During  his  residence  in  Philadelphia  Dr.  Troost  was  en- 
gaged in  manufactures  of  various  kinds.  In  1815  or  1816  he 
began  the  manufacture  of  alum  on  the  Magothy  River,  Cape 
Sable,  Maryland,  establishing  the  first  alum  works  in  the 
United  States.  Owing  to  the  failure  of  the  proprietors,  he 
suffered  great  pecuniary  loss.  The  War  of  1812  with  Great 
Britain  had  stimulated  manufactures,  and  its  termination  was 
disastrous  to  many  enterprising  men.  In  1821  he  was  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  the  Philadelphia  Museum, 
where  he  delivered  lectures  on  the  subject.  He  was  also  ap- 
pointed about  the  same  time  first  Professor  of  Chemistry  in 
the  College  of  Pharmacy,  Philadelphia,  a  position  which  he 
resigned, -after  having  delivered  one  course  of  lectures,  in  the 
succeeding  year.  During  this  period  he  also  made  geological 
excursions  into  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  elsewhere. 

In  1825  Dr.  Troost,  with  Maclure,  Say,  and  Lesueur,  joined 
Robert  Owen  in  the  formation  of  the  Communistic  Society  at 
New  Harmony,  Ind.  After  remaining  there  two  years,  he  re- 
moved to  Nashville,  Tenn.,  in  1827.  In  1828  he  was  elected, 
at  the  instance  of  President  Lindsley,  Professor  of  Chemistry, 
Geology,  and  Mineralogy  in  the  University  of  Nashville.  In 
a  historical  sketch,  published  in  the  catalogue  of  1850,  is  a 
table  of  the  longest  terms  of  official  service  of  instructors.  It 
is  headed  by  President  Lindsley,  twenty-six  years;  and  next 
in  length  of  service  comes  Prof.  Troost,  from  February  9, 
1828,  to  August  14,  1850,  twenty-two  years  and  a  half. 

In  1831  he  was  appointed  State  Geologist  of  Tennessee,  an 
office  which  he  held  till  it  was  abolished  in  1839.  The  record 
of  his  work  in  this  department  is  preserved  in  his  reports. 


GERARD   TROOST.  125 

The  first  and  second  reports  were  not  published.  The  third 
report,  made  in  1835,  contains  the  results  of  the  geologist's 
investigations  respecting  the  extent  of  the  coal  formations  in 
the  State.  "I  have  ascertained,"  it  says,  "  that  the  places  in 
which  coal  may  be  expected  belong  exclusively  and  entirely  to 
that  group  of  mountains  which  are  known  by  the  name  of 
Cumberland  Mountains,  and  are  composed  of  Walden's  Ridge, 
Crab  Orchard  Mountain,  Brimstone  Mountain,  and  some  other 
subordinate  ridges  of  the  same  system."  The  breadth  of  the 
formation  was  greatest  near  the  northern  limit  of  the  State, 
and  in  one  part  the  coal  was  represented  as  deposited  in  hori- 
zontal strata  of  great  extent.  The  report  also  deals  largely 
with  marl,  iron,  and  soils,  and  concludes  with  the  words:  "In 
a  scientific  point  of  view,  my  labours  have  been  very  advan- 
tageous. I  have  been  very  fortunate  in  obtaining  organic 
remains  which  were  unknown,  and  which  eventually  will  show 
how  far  our  strata  correspond  with  those  on  the  old  continent. 
I  have  discovered  parts  of  the  American  or  gigantic  mastodon 
hitherto  unknown." 

The  fourth  report,  of  1837,  relates  to  the  Ocoee  district, 
comprising  a  part  of  the  mountain  region  near  the  North  Car- 
olina boundary,  which  Prof.  Troost  was  directed  by  the  State 
Legislature  to  explore.  It  begins  with  an  exposition  of  the 
principles  of  geology  and  their  application  to  the  general 
structure  of  the  district  under  view,  for  the  information  of  the 
people;  an  admirable  specimen  of  exact  scientific  writing 
adapted  to  popular  comprehension,  explicit,  lucid  in  style,  and 
showing  familiarity  with  the  subject.  The  character  of  the  re- 
gion is  depicted  in  a  few  words :  "  Commencing  our  recon- 
naissance at  the  most  northern  extremity  of  the  district,  I 
found  the  rocks  at  Tallassee,  on  the  Tennessee  River,  en- 
tirely composed  of  grauwacke,  alternating  here  and  there  with 
limestone;  this  is  the  case  everywhere  along  the  Tennessee 
River,  where  I  was  able  to  approach  and  examine  them,  to  the 
Smoky  Mountain,  which  forms  the  southeastern  limit  of  the 
district,  and  separates  Tennessee  from  North  Carolina.  It  is 
almost  impossible  to  penetrate  any  distance  in  this  wild  and 
mountainous  country  ;  and  the  apparent  confusion  of  the  rocks, 
which  seem  at  some  places  heaped  up  without  order,  and 
changing  at  small  distances,  makes  the  geological  survey  haz- 
ardous and  extremely  difficult."  The  author  calls  attention  to 


126  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

tin  of  the  Geological  Society  of  France,  a  memoir  on  the 
organic  remains  and  fossils  of  Tennessee ;  and  in  Silliman's 
American  Journal  of  Science  and  the  Arts,  articles  on  Amber  at 
Cape  Sable,  Maryland ;  Minerals  of  Missouri ;  Coral  Regions 
of  Tennessee;  Analysis  of  a  Meteorite  from  Tennessee;  Me- 
teoric Iron  from  Tennessee  and  Alabama ;  A  Shower  of  Red 
Matter  in  Tennessee ;  Three  Varieties  of  Meteoric  Iron ;  Me- 
teoric Iron  of  Murfreesboro,  Tenn. ;  and  Krausite  and  Caco- 
rene  in  Tennessee.  His  last  writing,  forwarded  to  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution  for  publication  only  a  few  weeks  before  his 
death,  was  a  monograph  on  the  rare  and  hitherto  undescribed 
encrinites  of  Tennessee,  with  accurate  and  beautiful  drawings, 
from  specimens  in  the  doctor's  cabinet. 

He  gathered  a  collection  of  about  fourteen  thousand  min- 
eralogical  and  more  than  five  thousand  geological  specimens, 
besides  a  large  number  of  shells,  and  relics  from  Indian  mounds, 
constituting  what  was  at  the  time  considered  the  finest  cabinet 
belonging  to  a  single  person  in  the  United  States.  This  cabi- 
net was  sold  in  1874  by  his  heirs  to  the  Louisville  (Ky.)  Pub- 
lic Library  for  twenty  thousand  dollars.  His  specimens  in 
comparative  anatomy,  zoology,  and  botany  were  disposed  of 
before  his  death.  Besides  the  Philadelphia  Academy,  he  was 
a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  the  Geologi- 
cal Society  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Geological  Society  of  France, 
and  of  other  scientific  bodies  in  America  and  Europe. 

A  minute  adopted  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Nashville,  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Prof.  Troost, 
relates  that,  "  born  and  liberally  educated  in  Holland,  he  early 
manifested  a  zealous  devotion  to  natural  history  and  chemis- 
try, more  especially  to  the  then  infant  sciences  of  geology  and 
mineralogy.  With  a  view  to  the  more  successful  pursuit  of 
his  favourite  studies  he  visited  Paris,  and  was  for  several  years 
the  pupil  of  the  celebrated  Haiiy.  He  removed  to  the  United 
States  about  forty  years  ago,  and  in  due  time  became  an  Amer- 
ican citizen.  His  entire  life  was  consecrated  to  geology  and 
the  kindred  sciences,  with  what  ability  and  success  his  pub- 
lished writings  and  his  well-earned  reputation  at  home  and 
abroad  may  eloquently  testify.  As  a  professor  in  this  univer- 
sity during  the  last  twenty-two  years  and  a  State  geologist  of 
Tennessee  for  the  most  part  of  that  period,  he  won  the  confi- 
dence and  respect  of  the  community  by  invaluable  service  in 


GERARD   TROOST.  12J 

both  capacities,  as  well  as  by  the  unaffected  modesty,  kindness, 
and  uniform  courtesy  of  his  deportment  toward  all  men.  In 
the  various  relations  and  stations  of  life,  public  and  private, 
he  was  without  reproach  and  above  suspicion.  Beloved, 
trusted,  honoured,  venerated  by  all  those  most  intimately  con- 
nected or  associated  with  him,  he  could  not  make  an  enemy — 
he  had  none." 

The  last  official  act  of  Dr.  Lindsley  before  retiring  from 
the  presidency  of  the  university  was  to  pronounce  a  dis- 
course on  the  life  and  character  of  Troost,  from  which  many 
of  the  facts  in  this  account  are  derived. 

A  son  of  President  Lindsley,  Prof.  J.  Berrien  Lindsley,  M.  D., 
who  was  Dr.  Troost's  favourite  and  most  trusted  pupil,  thus 
writes  of  him :  "  The  doctor  was,  in  all  respects,  of  most  lov- 
able character.  From  my  early  boyhood  until  his  death  I 
knew  him  intimately,  and  admired  and  revered  him.  He  was 
universally  esteemed.  From  the  University  of  Nashville  he 
received  throughout  his  long  professional  career  one  thousand 
dollars  per  annum  for  three  lectures  weekly  to  the  senior  class; 
from  the  State  five  hundred,  and,  for  a  short  period,  one  thou- 
sand dollars  per  annum  for  three  months'  geological  explora- 
tions. He  lived  very  frugally  and  sent  large  sums  to  Europe 
for  rare  and  choice  mineral  specimens.  He  dealt  largely  with 
Hewland,  of  London,  and  with  Krautz,  of  Bonn.  The  latter 
told  me,  in  1852,  that  Dr.  Troost  was  one  of  his  most  liberal 
customers." 

In  a  letter  to  President  Lindsley,  replying  to  one  which  had 
informed  him  of  Troost's  death,  Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson,  of 
Boston,  wrote  :  "  It  was  my  good  fortune  to  become  somewhat 
intimately  acquainted  with  Dr.  Troost  in  1825,  while  travelling 
in  company  with  him  and  the  late  distinguished  geologists  and 
naturalists,  Maclure,  Say,  and  Lesueur,  during  their  scientific 
excursions  through  the  counties  of  Sussex,  N.  J.,  and  Orange, 
N.  Y.,  and  I  was  struck  with  the  unaffected  simplicity  of  his 
manners,  and  his  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy,  as  well  as 
his  prompt  and  scientific  recognition  of  the  minerals  and 
rocks  which  it  was  our  object  to  examine.  He  was  an  accu- 
rate and  scientific  mineralogist,  and  very  correct  crystallogra- 
pher,  remembering  with  the  most  remarkable  fidelity  the  exact 
angles  of  known  crystals  of  minerals,  so  that  he  readily  distin- 
guished rare  and  remarkable  forms." 


CHARLES  ALEXANDRE    LESUEUR. 

1778-1846. 

AMONG  the  early  naturalists  in  America,  not  the  least  de- 
serving of  commemoration  was  the  artist,  traveller,  and  nat- 
uralist who  was  "  the  first  to  study  the  ichthyology  of  the 
Great  American  Lakes."  He  travelled  widely  in  Pennsylvania, 
New  York,  and  New  England  from  1817  to  1828.  He  had  won 
a  high  reputation  in  France  as  an  artist.  As  a  naturalist  he 
had  voyaged  for  over  three  years  with  Peron.  He  was  a  care- 
ful and  faithful  observer,  and,  according  to  accounts,  a  man  of 
most  genial  and  attractive  character. 

Charles  Alexandre  Lesueur  was  born  at  Havre-de-Grace, 
France,  on  New  Year's  Day  of  1778.  His  father,  Jean  Baptiste 
Denis  Lesueur,  who  was  an  officer  of  the  admiralty,  bestowed 
upon  his  son  such  education  as  his  limited  means  allowed,  there 
being  several  other  children  that  equally  claimed  his  paternal 
care.  In  French  schools  the  elements  of  drawing  were  even 
then  taught,  and  young  Charles  early  developed  a  strong  bent 
toward  this  art.  At  the  end  of  his  school  days  the  productions 
of  his  pencil  displayed  the  skill  and  finish  of  a  master. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  the  Institute  of 
France  conceived  a  project  for  a  government  expedition  of  dis- 
covery and  scientific  observation  in  the  southern  parts  of  the 
Eastern  hemisphere.  The  idea  found  favour  with  Bonaparte, 
who  was  then  First  Consul,  and  was  duly  carried  out.  Two 
corvettes,  named  Le  Gfrgraphe  and  Le  Naturaliste,  were  equipped 
in  the  port  of  Havre,  officers  and  crews  were  carefully  selected 
from  the  best  material  in  the  navy,  and  a  scientific  corps  of 
twenty-three  members  was  organized.  This  body  comprised 
four  astronomers  and  hydrographers,  three  botanists,  five 
zoloogists,  two  mineralogists,  four  artists,  and  five  gardeners. 
There  was  great  competition  for  places  in  both  the  naval  and 
the  scientific  departments  of  the  expedition.  It  had  been  in- 

128 


CHARLES   ALEXANDRE    LESUEUR. 


CHARLES   ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR.  I2Q 

tended  to  have  only  four  zoloogists.  The  fifth  was  Frangois 
Peron,  a  young  physician,  who  made  a  place  for  himself  after 
the  staff  was  complete  by  pointing  out  the  desirability  of  add- 
ing a  medical  naturalist,  who  should  make  researches  upon 
the  natural  history  of  the  human  race,  or  anthropology.  Le- 
sueur  caught  the  prevailing  fever  and  succeeded  in  joining  the 
expedition  by  enlisting  on  board  Le  Ge'ographe  as  an  aide  canon- 
nier  according  to  one  authority,  or  a  novice-timonier  (helmsman's 
apprentice)  according  to  another.  A  detailed  account  of  this 
voyage  is  given  by  George  Ord,  in  the  memoir  of  Lesueur  read 
by  him  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1849.  The 
two  vessels  set  sail  October  19,  1800,  touched  at  the  Canaries, 
and  after  following  around  the  coast  of  Africa  reached  the  He 
de  France,  now  Mauritius,  east  of  Madagascar,  on  March  15, 
1801.  Long  before  the  ship  reached  this  port  the  talent  of 
young  Lesueur  for  drawing  and  painting  had  become  known. 
When  the  artists  of  the  scientific  corps  saw  the  masterly  man- 
ner in  which  he  had  depicted  some  of  the  mollusks,  and  soft 
zoophytes  taken  in  the  early  part  of  the  voyage,  they  declared 
him  worthy  of  a  place  in  their  department.  The  commander 
in  chief,  Nicholas  Baudin,  accordingly  released  him  from  the 
humble  position  he  occupied  among  the  crew,  gave  him  similar 
accommodations  to  those  enjoyed  by  the  other  artists,  and  for 
occupation  set  him  at  work  illustrating  the  private  journal 
which  the  commander  kept.  This  journal,  aside  from  Le- 
sueur's  illustrations,  was  worthless.  Lesueur  had  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Peron,  who  was  only  three  years  older  than 
he,  and  for  the  rest  of  the  voyage  these  two  young  men  worked 
zealously  together. 

The  commander  had  by  this  time  proved  himself  both  in- 
competent and  dishonest.  Instead  of  standing  from  the  Ca- 
naries across  the  ocean  to  near  Brazil,  and  from  there  to  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  thus  taking  advantage  of  the  trade  winds, 
he  attempted  to  follow  down  the  coast,  and  experienced  calms 
and  baffling  winds,  which  caused  much  loss  of  time.  At  Mau- 
ritius upward  of  eighty  boxes  and  trunks,  among  whose  con- 
tents, it  was  alleged,  were  quantities  of  the  wines,  liquors,  and 
medicines  belonging  to  the  ship,  were  put  on  shore  in  charge 
of  the  commander's  secretary,  who  soon  opened  a  shop  for  the 
sale  of  these  goods.  Seven  of  the  scientific  corps  decided  to 
go  no  further.  These  were  Bissy,  an  astronomer ;  Andre  Mi- 


130  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

chaux,  and  Delisse,  botanists ;  Bory  de  Saint- Vincent,  zoolo- 
gist; Milbert,  Lebrun,  and  Gamier,  artists.  Forty  of  the  best 
seamen  had  deserted,  and  several  of  the  officers  remained  on 
the  island.  Many  of  those  who  left  the  ships  had  the  excuse 
of  illness,  but  their  chief  reason  was  a  sense  of  insecurity  with 
such  a  commander.  Worse  was  to  follow,  for  in  the  subse- 
quent part  of  the  cruise  the  work  of  the  scientific  exploring 
parties  was  hampered  by  the  rigid  discipline  of  the  com- 
mander and  the  inadequate  supplies  of  food  and  arms 
which  he  furnished  to  them,  while  sickness  and  death  afflicted 
both  the  crew  and  the  scientific  corps  because  of  his  neg- 
lect of  well-known  sanitary  measures  and  the  scant  allow- 
ance of  water,  stimulants,  and  sometimes  food,  prescribed 
by  him. 

After  a  stay  of  six  weeks  at  Mauritius  the  expedition  pro- 
ceeded to  Australia.  While  exploring  this  coast  the  ships  be- 
came separated  in  a  gale.  The  Ge'ographe  then  visited  De 
Witt's  Land  and  went  next  to  Timor,  where  she  was  rejoined 
by  her  consort.  On  this  island,  while  pursuing  a  troop  of 
monkeys  among  the  rocks  which  obstructed  the  course  of  the 
River  Coepang,  Lesueur  was  bitten  in  the  heel  by  a  venomous 
reptile.  He  was  alone,  at  some  distance  from  the  town,  but  by 
placing  a  ligature  around  the  limb  he  was  able  to  reach  the 
quarters  of  the  surgeon  general  and  obtain  treatment,  which 
saved  his  life. 

Although  the  climate  of  Timor  is  very  unhealthful  to  Eu- 
ropeans, a  stay  of  eighty-four  days  was  made  there.  As  a  result 
dysentery  made  frightful  havoc  among  the  crew,  while  among 
the  scientists  the  chief  gardener  died  at  the  island,  two  zoologists, 
a  mineralogist,  and  another  gardener  only  a  short  time  after 
leaving  it.  The  ships  at  length  set  sail  for  Tasmania,  which  was 
explored  together  with  part  of  the  southern  coast  of  Australia. 
The  horrors  of  scurvy  had  succeeded  the  dysentery.  A  long 
stop  was  made  at  Sydney  to  care  for  the  sick  and  replenish 
supplies.  The  Naturaliste  was  sent  home  from  here  and  a  small 
schooner  was  bought  to  accompany  the  GJographe.  Five 
months  were  spent  in  further  explorations  of  Tasmania  and 
neighbouring  islands,  and  another  stay  of  a  month  was  made 
at  Timor,  but  dysentery  caused  a  hurried  departure.  The  ship 
being  in  need  of  supplies  which  could  not  be  procured  in  the 
vicinity,  and  the  commander  suffering  from  hemorrhage,  the 


CHARLES   ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR.  131 

course  was  laid  for  Mauritius,  where  Baudin  died  six  weeks 
after  reaching  Port  Louis. 

After  a  stay  of  four  months  at  Mauritius  the  Gtographe  set 
sail  for  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  homeward  bound.  At  that 
port  PeVon,  now  the  only  remaining  zoologist  of  the  expedition, 
with  the  aid  of  Lesueur,  made  a  careful  investigation  of  an 
anatomical  peculiarity  of  the  Bushman  women — a  fold  of  skin 
called  the  apron — of  which  Lesueur  made  four  careful  draw- 
ings. From  the  Cape  the  ship  proceeded  directly  to  France, 
entering  the  port  of  Lorient,  March  25,  1804,  after  an  absence 
of  upward  of  three  years  and  five  months. 

Knowledge  of  Captain  Baudin's  misconduct  and  of  the  con- 
sequent disintegration  of  the  scientific  corps  had  predisposed 
the  Government  and  the  Institute  to  regard  the  expedition  as  a 
failure,  so  that  Pe"ron  and  Lesueur  met  with  rather  a  cold  re- 
ception. They  secured,  however,  a  committee  to  examine  the 
collections  brought  home  by  the  Naturaliste  and  Gtographe, 
from  whose  comprehensive  report,  made  June  9,  1806,  the  fol- 
lowing summary  is  drawn : 

"  Of  the  five  zoologists  appointed  by  the  Government,  two 
remained  at  the  Isle  de  France.  Two  others  perished  at  the 
commencement  of  the  second  campaign,  by  diseases  contracted 
at  Timor.  P£ron  alone  was  left ;  but  supported  by  his  invig- 
orated ardour,  and  the  efforts  of  his  coadjutor  Lesueur,  a 
zoological  collection  was  made,  the  extent  and  importance  of 
which  become  more  and  more  manifest.  It  is  composed  of  more 
than  one  hundred  thousand  specimens  of  animals,  several  of 
which  will  constitute  new  genera ;  and  the  new  species,  accord- 
ing to  the  report  of  the  professors  of  the  museum,  are  upward 
of  twenty-five  hundred.  If  we  call  to  mind  that  the  second 
voyage  of  Cook,  fruitful  as  were  its  discoveries,  made  known 
not  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  new  species,  and  that 
all  the  united  voyages  of  Carteret,  Wallis,  Furneaux,  Mears, 
and  even  Vancouver,  did  not  produce  as  great  a  number, 
it  results  that  P£ron  and  Lesueur  alone  have  discovered 
more  new  animals  than  all  the  travelling  naturalists  of  mod- 
ern days." 

After  commending  Pe*ron's  descriptions,  the  report  pro- 
ceeds : 

"  A  description,  nevertheless,  how  complete  soever  it  may 
be,  can  never  give  a  sufficiently  just  idea  of  those  singular 


132 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


forms,  which  have  no  precise  term  of  comparison  in  objects 
previously  known.  Correct  figures  alone  can  supply  the  im-  , 
perfection  of  language.  Here  the  labours  of  which  it  is  our 
duty  to  render  an  account  acquire  a  new  interest.  Fifteen 
hundred  drawings  or  paintings,  executed  by  Mr.  Lesueur  with 
extreme  precision,  reproduce  the  principal  objects  which  were 
collected  by  his  careful  industry  and  that  of  his  friend.  All 
these  drawings,  either  made  from  living  animals  or  recent 
specimens,  form  the  most  complete  and  the  most  precious 
series  of  the  kind  that  we  have  any  knowledge  of." 

Of  Lesueur's  share  in  the  work  the  report  says  further : 
"  You  have  seen,  by  what  we  have  said  of  the  labours  of  Le- 
sueur, that  he  was  almost  everywhere  an  associate  in  those  of 
Peron.  The  natural  history  of  man  is  not  less  indebted  to  him. 
All  the  details  of  the  existence  of  the  natives  have  been  de- 
signed by  him  with  the  most  scrupulous  accuracy.  All  their 
musical  instruments,  those  of  war,  of  hunting,  of  fishing;  their 
domestic  utensils;  all  the  peculiarities  of  their  clothing,  of  their 
ornaments,  of  their  habitations,  of  their  tombs — in  a  word,  all 
that  their  rude  ingenuity  has  been  able  to  accomplish,  is  found 
united  in  the  productions  of  this  skilful  and  indefatigable  art- 
ist. The  principal  sites  of  the  coasts  explored  by  the  expedi- 
tion ;  different  views  of  the  town  of  Sydney,  the  capital  of  the 
English  colony  of  New  South  Wales,  its  plan,  etc.,  give  to  the 
Atlas  of  the  History  of  the  Voyage,  edited  by  his  friend,  a  new 
character  of  importance." 

The  Government  now  provided  for  the  publication  of  a 
history  of  the  voyage,  under  the  editorship  of  Pe"ron,  with  an 
atlas  by  Lesueur.  The  first  volume  of  the  Voyage  de  Decou- 
vertes  aux  Terres  Australes  appeared  in  1807.  When  only 
part  of  the  chapters  of  the  second  volume  were  finished,  Peron 
was  compelled  by  ill  health  to  give  up  the  work,  and  he  died  in 
December,  1810.  Lesueur,  to  whom  he  had  bequeathed  all  his 
manuscripts,  shrank  from  the  task  of  going  on  with  the  history, 
but  the  second  volume  was  completed  by  Captain  Louis  Frey- 
cinet,  one  of  the  naval  officers  of  the  expedition,  and  finally 
published  in  1816.  An  account  of  the  voyage  prepared  by  Le- 
sueur's father  was  also  published. 

After  Peron's  death  Lesueur  was  no  longer  contented  in 
France.  He  desired  to  visit  other  scenes,  but  was  restrained 
by  the  fact  that  his  father,  now  aged,  was  in  need  of  his  assist- 


CHARLES  ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR.  l^ 

ance.  At  length  an  opportunity  was  afforded  him  to  gratify 
his  desire  for  travelling  without  inconvenience  of  a  pecuniary 
nature.  Mr.  William  Maclure,  formerly  of  Philadelphia,  but 
then  residing  in  Paris,  was  intending  to  go  to  the  United  States 
by  the  way  of  the  West  Indies,  and  offered  to  take  Lesueur  as 
a  travelling  companion.  The  offer  was  gladly  accepted,  and 
they  left  France  in  the  autumn  of  1815.  A  large  number  of 
the  West  India  islands  were  visited  in  the  following  winter,  en- 
abling Lesueur  to  gather  a  rich  harvest  of  marine  creatures, 
and  the  travellers  reached  the  United  States  late  in  the  spring 
of  1816.  After  a  tour  through  New  York,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Mary, 
land,  they  settled  down  in  Philadelphia. 

Lesueur  found  many  agreeable  associates  in  the  United 
States.  His  reputation  had  preceded  him,  and  he  was  quickly 
elected  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society. 
Seme  months  later  he  was  elected  into  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences,  of  which  Mr.  Maclure  was  now  president,  and  took  a 
large  part  in  gaining  a  high  scientific  standing  for  that  rising 
institution.  Philadelphia  was  Lesueur's  residence  for  nine 
years.  The  teaching  of  drawing  and  painting  was  his  profes- 
sion, and  the  time  that  he  could  devote  to  science  was  em- 
ployed in  preparing  materials  for  a  contemplated  systematic 
work  on  the  fishes  of  North  America.  Needing  a  literary 
coadjutor  for  this  undertaking,  whom  he  never  found,  the  work 
was  not  written. 

When  the  famous  socialistic  colony  was  established  by 
Robert  Owen,  at  New  Harmony,  Ind.,  Lesueur  was  one  of  its 
members.  He  came  down  from  Pittsburg  in  the  famous  "boat- 
load of  knowledge  "  with  which  the  colony  was  intellectually 
equipped.  It  was  not  his  own  choice,  but  a  sense  of  duty — to 
gratify  the  wishes  of  his  patron,  Mr.  Maclure — that  induced 
him  to  leave  his  agreeable  surroundings  in  Philadelphia  for  the 
crude,  experimental  social  conditions  of  the  colony  in  the  West. 
During  his  stay  at  New  Harmony,  Lesueur  made  considerable 
collections  and  many  drawings,  some  of  which  are  still  pre- 
served, and  others  have  been  published  in  the  Journals  of  the 
Academy  at  Philadelphia.  A  most  spirited  portrait  of  the  old 
Governor  Vigo  is  still  extant.  An  account  of  the  drop-curtain 
painted  by  Lesueur  for  the  old  theatre  in  New  Harmony  men- 
tions that  a  rattlesnake  and  the  Falls  of  Niagara  were  repre- 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

sented  on  it,  as  two  natural  features  most  characteristically 
American. 

After  the  failure  of  the  New  Harmony  colony,  Lesueur  con- 
tinued to  reside  at  the  settlement  for  several  years,  the  com- 
panionship of  Thomas  Say  largely  reconciling  him  to  his 
surroundings,  and  its  loss  at  Say's  death,  in  1834,  being  keenly 
felt.  Three  years  later  Lesueur  sailed  from  New  Orleans  for 
France,  where,  according  to  Swainson,  he  earned  a  precarious 
livelihood  as  a  teacher  of  painting. 

Fortunately  this  sketch  can  be  enriched  by  the  most  valu- 
able of  original  documents  concerning  Lesueur.  This  is  a  per- 
sonal letter  from  the  late  Prof.  Richard  Owen,  whose  early  life 
was  spent  at  New  Harmony,  to  Prof.  Jordan,  his  successor  in 
the  chair  of  Biology  in  the  University  of  Indiana. 

Prof.  Owen  writes  as  follows  under  date  of  December  14, 
1886: 

"Charles  A.  Lesueur  was,  when  I  knew  him  in  1828,  about 
fifty  to  fifty-five  years  of  age,  tall,  rather  spare  in  muscle,  but 
hardy  and  enduring.  He  permitted  his  beard  to  grow,  which 
at  that  time  was  quite  unusual ;  hence  he  sometimes  platted  it 
and  tucked  it  almost  out  of  sight  when  he  went  from  home.  In 
New  Harmony  he  usually  went  barenecked,  often  bareheaded, 
and  in  summer  occasionally  barefooted,  or  at  least  without 
socks.  His  hair  had  been  dark,  but  was  sprinkled  (as  well  as 
his  beard)  with  gray.  His  manner  and  movements  were  quick  ; 
his  fondness  for  natural  history  (as  it  was  then  called)  led  him 
to  hunt  and  fish  a  good  deal. 

"  In  summer  he  was  fond  of  swimming  in  the  Wabash,  and 
I  frequently  accompanied  him.  He  instructed  me  how  to  feel 
with  my  feet  for  Unios  and  other  shells  as  we  waded  some- 
times up  to  our  necks  in  the  river  or  ponds,  searching  to  add 
to  our  collections.  When  he  went  fishing  with  others  he  always 
exchanged  his  fine  common  fishes  for  the  smallest  and  to  them 
most  indifferent-looking,  when  he  recognised  some  new  species 
or  even  variety.  This  item  I  have  from  Mr.  Sampson,  who  is 
well  acquainted  with  the  fish  of  the  Wabash,  but  who  confesses 
he  could  see  no  difference  in  many  caught  until  Mr.  Lesueur, 
who  at  once  detected  that  difference,  had  pointed  it  out. 

"  He  was  temperate  and  active  in  all  his  habits,  smoking 
being  the  only  objectionable  habit  in  which  he  indulged.  His 
temper  was  quick  and  used  to  call  out  an  occasional  "  God 


CHARLES   ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR. 


135 


bless  my  soul !  "  the  only  approach  to  anything  like  irritation 
that  he  evinced;  he  was  very  kind-hearted. 

"  In  conversation  with  Agassiz  about  Mr.  Lesueur,  the 
great  Swiss  ichthyologist  paid  a  high  compliment  to  Lesueur's 
acquirements  in  that  department,  considering  him  then  (as  I 
inferred)  the  next  best  to  himself  at  that  time  in  the  United 
States.  He  wasn  however,  I  judge,  remarkably  conversant 
with  other  branches  of  biology,  inasmuch  as  nearly  all  the 
magnificent  drawings  he  had  made  when  left  in  New  Holland 
(as  it  was  then  called)  were  mammals,  chiefly  the  ornithorhyn- 
chus,  echidna,  and  other  rare  animals.  In  showing  his  draw- 
ings he  generally  offered  a  lens,  that  you  might  see  every 
hair  distinctly  delineated. 

"  He  was  a  magnificent  artist,  good  alike  in  drawing  and 
colouring.  I  have  some  of  his  sketches  yet,  in  which,  when  I 
was  taking  drawing  lessons  from  him,  he  showed  me  how  to 
outline,  for  instance,  the  skeleton  of  the  human  figure,  then  to 
add  the  muscular  system,  then  the  clothing,  drapery,  etc.  We 
usually  took  views  from  Nature.  Although  so  minute  in  de- 
tails of  fine  paintings,  he  was  equally  good  in  large  scenery. 
For  many  years  we  had  here  the  scenes  he  painted  for  a  Thes- 
pian Society  of  this  place,  where,  amid  the  forest  trees,  he  had 
squirrels,  birds,  etc.  Being  fond  of  hunting,  he  had  made  to 
order  by  a  native  gunsmith,  who  was  quite  a  genius,  a  double- 
barrel  piece,  one  a  rifle,  the  other  a  smoothbore.  Gillson,  the 
gunsmith,  made  the  barrels,  bored  the  rifle,  made  the  stock,  and 
an  admirable  lock ;  the  stock  was  inlaid  with  silver  and  en- 
graved by  the  same  skilful  hand,  bearing  Lesueur's  name  and 
an  appropriate  device.  I  do  not  remember  exactly  the  price, 
but  think  it  was  about  a  hundred  dollars. 

"  In  consequence  of  his  having  been  with  La  Pe'rouse  (until, 
fortunately  for  his  life,  he  was  left  to  work  up  the  animals  of 
Australia),  the  French  Government  gave  him  a  pension,  which 
he  drew  annually,  until  they  notified  him  that,  unless  he  re- 
turned and  gave  his  time  and  talents  to  his  native  country 
(France),  the  pension  would  be  withheld.*  He  went  at  a  time 
when  I  was  absent,  and  those  who  here  knew  him  well  have 


*  This  statement  evidently  contains  an  error.  The  pension  was  probably 
given  for  his  services  in  conjunction  with  Peron,  as  he  was  too  young  to  have 
gone  on  the  ill-fated  expedition  commanded  by  La  Perouse. — W.  J.  Y. 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

forgotten  the  date.  He  became  curator  of  the  museum  at 
Havre,  and  then,  after  some  years,  died  and  was  buried  there. 
The  exact  date  of  his  death  those  there  have  also  forgotten. 

"When  he  came  to  New  Harmony  during  the  social  experi- 
ment he  was  directly  from  the  West  Indies,  and  brought  a 
young  lad  and  a  child,  both  of  whom  subsequently  married, 
but  both  are  now  dead.  It  was  from  their  relatives  that  I  ex- 
pected to  get  dates,  but  failed. 

"  When  the  '  Preliminary  Society  '  (at  New  Harmony)  re- 
solved itself  into  the  (i)  Educational,  (2)  Agricultural,  and  (3) 
Commercial  Societies,  Mr.  Lesueur  joined  the  first,  and  I  have 
in  my  box  of  valuable  papers  a  deed  of  a  lot  (for  the  purpose 
of  erecting  a  foundry),  executed  by  the  Educational  Society, 
and  signed  by  my  father-in-law,  Mr.  Neef,  and  his  family,  Drs. 
Troost,  C.  A.  Lesueur,  William  Phiquepal,  and  a  number  of 
others. 

"  Some  of  the  relatives  of  those  who  came  with  him  think 
there  was  a  notice  in  some  public  journal  of  his  death,  etc., 
but  I  never  saw  it.  I  just  recall  two  incidents : 

"When  we  were  together,  going  sketching,  I  think,  we 
found  and  killed  a  large  blacksnake,  uncommonly  distended. 
Mr.  Lesueur,  when  we  reached  home,  used  a  large  syringe  and 
injected  water  into  the  stomach,  from  which  he  then  stripped 
four  young  rabbits.  Another  time  we  obtained  a  female  opos- 
sum, and  he  very  deftly  dissected  it  and  showed  me  the  young 
adhering  to  the  small  teats  in  the  pouch  or  marsupium." 

Lesueur's  scientific  work  was  done  chiefly  in  America,  and 
it  ranked  with  the  best  of  its  kind  at  the  time.  His  most  im- 
portant memoir  was  a  monograph  of  the  suckers,  a  group  of 
American  fishes  constituting  his  genus  Catostomus,  each  species 
being  represented  by  a  clever  and  accurate  figure— drawing 
and  engraving  being  both  by  the  hand  of  Lesueur.  In  1878 
Prof.  David  Starr  Jordan  spoke  of  this  paper  as  "  an  excellent 
one,  comparing  favourably  with  most  that  has  since  been  writ- 
ten on  the  group."  Other  valuable  papers  were  on  certain 
blennies,  rays,  and  flying  fishes,  accounts  of  new  species  from 
the  West  Indies,  and  descriptions  of  tortoises  and  other  rep- 
tiles. 

The  Royal  Society's  Catalogue  of  Scientific  Papers  contains 
the  titles  of  nine  papers  of  which  Lesueur  was  joint  author 
with  Fran9ois  Peron.  These  appeared  in  1809  and  1810  in 


CHARLES   ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR. 


137 


French  scientific  serials  and  deal  with  jellyfishes  and  some 
other  marine  animals.  Lesueur  was  joint  author  with  Anselme 
G.  Desmarest  of  two  papers  on  certain  molluscs  and  sea 
mosses  in  1814  and  1815.  The  papers  of  which  he  was  sole 
author  number  forty-three.  They  begin  in  1813  with  a  memoir 
on  several  new  species  of  mollusks  and  radiates,  published  in 
the  Journal  de  Physique.  The  first  six  were  written  before  he 
came  to  America,  and  he  picked  up  material  for  the  seventh 
on  his  way  over.  It  deals  with  three  new  sluglike  molluscs, 
and  is  entitled  Characters  of  a  New  Genus  (Firoloida)  and  De- 
scriptions of  Three  New  Species  upon  which  it  is  Formed ; 
Discovered  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  in  the  Months  of  March  and 
April,  1816,  lat.  22°  9'.  It  appeared  in  Volume  I  of  the  Journal 
of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  in  1817. 
Dr.  Ruschenberger  relates,  in  his  Notice  of  the  Academy,  that 
in  the  first  year  of  the  Journal,  "  Mr.  Ord,  anxious  to  forward 
the  publication,  translated  or  rather  prepared  the  papers  of  M. 
Lesueur  from  materials  furnished  by  him,  as  that  gentleman, 
who  immigrated  from  France  in  1816,  possessed  very  little 
knowledge  of  the  English  language."  The  last  three  of  the 
list  appeared  in  Paris  in  1827,  1831,  and  1839  respectively. 
Two  are  on  certain  tortoises,  the  other  is  an  observation  on  a 
bite  of  a  viper.  Three  other  papers,  written  while  he  was  in 
this  country,  were  published  in  Paris ;  the  rest  appeared  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy,  except  one  in  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  He  evidently 
restricted  himself  quite  closely  to  the  fishes  and  other  aquatic 
animals,  though  with  an  occasional  excursion  among  the  rep- 
tiles. Peron  and  Lesueur  had  intended  to  publish  an  elabo- 
rate work  on  the  Medusa,  after  the  history  of  the  Voyage  to 
Terra  Australis  was  completed.  The  death  of  the  former 
checked  the  project,  but  Lesueur  issued  a  prospectus  of  the 
work,  with  specimen  plates  engraved  and  coloured  after  his 
beautiful  drawings.  It  is  probable  that  the  necessarily  great 
cost  of  such  a  publication  prevented  the  plan  from  being  car- 
ried out. 

His  descriptions  are  clear,  exact,  and  honest.  His  drawings 
are  not  accurate  only,  but  spirited.  They  are  works  of  art 
rather  than  mechanical  representations.  With  less  range  of 
learning  than  Rafinesque  and  some  other  contemporaries,  Le- 
sueur had,  what  Rafinesque  had  not,  sound  sense  and  faithful- 
10 


138  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ness  in  the  study  of  details.  In  America  he  was  perhaps  the 
first  of  that  school  of  systematic  zoology  which  regards  no 
fact  as  so  unimportant  that  it  need  not  be  correctly  ascertained 
and  stated — a  method  of  work  with  which  has  been  rightly 
associated  the  name  of  Prof.  Spencer  F.  Baird.  This  attention 
to  accuracy  in  detail  marks  the  so-called  "  Bairdian  epoch  "  in 
vertebrate  zoology. 

When  Lesueur  left  France  for  America,  Ord  relates,  he 
placed  all  his  disposable  means,  including  his  pension,  in  the 
hands  of  his  father.  The  latter  dying  four  years  later,  these 
affairs  were  entrusted  to  an  attorney,  "  it  being  his  intention 
to  create  a  fund,  to  which  he  might  have  recourse  in  case  of 
need.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  gave  himself  much  concern 
with  respect  to  this  agency,  and  on  his  return. to  Paris  he  had 
the  mortification  to  find  that  the  agent  had  betrayed  his  confi- 
dence by  appropriating  to  the  use  of  his  own  family  the  entire 
fund,  which  amounted  to  the  sum  of  forty  thousand  francs- 
The  feelings  of  Lesueur  were  sorely  tried  at  this  event,  and  the 
wrong  was  the  more  galling,  as  it  was  perpetrated  under  the 
guise  of  friendship.  Notwithstanding  this  heavy  loss,  at  a  time 
of  life,  too,  when  the  infirmities  of  age  began  to  be  felt,  he  had 
still  a  remnant  left,  the  produce  of  his  industry,  which  modicum 
he  shared  with  a  brother  whose  necessities  were  greater  than 
his  own." 

In  the  latter  part  of  1838  Mr.  George  Ord  visited  him  in 
Paris,  whither  he  had  brought  a  valuable  collection  of  speci- 
mens of  natural  history  from  the  United  States,  and  all  the 
drawings  and  manuscripts  resulting  from  his  various  travels. 
"  Perhaps  no  individual  then  living,"  said  Mr.  Ord  in  his 
memoir,  "  possessed  a  greater  fund  of  materials  for  works  of 
the  highest  interest  in  natural  history — materials  destined  in  a 
great  measure,  it  is  feared,  to  be  useless,  for  the  want  of  that 
mind  which  alone  could  direct  their  application." 

"Some  time  in  the  year  1843, "Ord  continues,  "the  project 
of  founding  a  museum  of  natural  history  in  the  city  of  Havre 
was  set  on  foot,  and  Mr.  Lesueur,  who  had  taken  a  great  in- 
terest in  the  measure,  was  looked  to  as  one  eminently  capable 
of  filling  an  important  office  in  an  establishment  which  was  in- 
debted to  his  personal  exertions  for  much  of  its  favour  with  the 
community.  In  1845  he  was  chosen  curator  of  the  museum, 
and  he  removed  to  Havre  in  order  to  superintend  the  building, 


CHARLES  ALEXANDRE   LESUEUR. 

which  was  advancing  toward  completion."  In  May,  1846,  he 
wrote  to  Ord  :  "  I  am  occupied  at  this  time  in  arranging  the  col- 
lections of  our  cabinet.  As  my  presence  is  now  essential,  I 
have  taken  a  small  country  house  not  far  from  Havre.  It  is 
situated  in  a  quiet  valley,  a  short  distance  from  the  sea,  which 
is  visible  from  our  windows.  Should  you  return  to  France  you 
must  come  and  stay  with  us."  He  was  not  destined  to  enjoy 
these  congenial  surroundings  for  long.  On  December  12,  1846, 
he  died,  after  an  illness  of  only  a  day  or  two.  His  burial  place 
is  the  Church  of  St.  Adresse,  in  a  little  valley  at  the  base  of 
Cape  la  Heve. 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER. 

1779-1864. 

THE  name  of  Professor  Silliman  is  intimately  connected 
with  the  progress  of  science  in  the  United  States  during  the 
former  half  of  this  century.  In  fact,  his  long  life,  his  unbroken 
connection  of  over  half  a  century  with  Yale  College,  and  his 
founding  of  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  make  him  prob- 
ably the  best-known  figure  of  the  period. 

Benjamin  Silliman  was  born  in  North  Stratford  (now  Trum- 
bull),  Connecticut,  on  the  8th  of  August,  1779.  The  home  of 
his  family  was  at  Fairfield,  a  few  miles  distant,  on  Long  Island 
Sound.  But  the  Revolutionary  War  was  then  at  its  height,  his 
father  had  recently  been  taken  out  of  his  house  at  midnight  by 
a  British  and  Tory  raiding  party,  and  his  mother  had  sought 
safety  with  friends.  His  earliest  American  ancestor  on  the 
father's  side,  Daniel  Silliman,  was  believed  to  have  been  an 
emigrant  from  Holland,  but  there  are  reasons  for  presuming 
that  he  belonged  to  an  Italian  Protestant  family  that  took 
refuge  in  Switzerland,  and  one  of  whose  members  afterward 
came  to  America,  possibly  sojourning  for  a  short  time  in  Hol- 
land. His  grandfather,  Ebenezer  Silliman,  was  a  graduate 
from  Yale  College,  a  Judge  of  the  Superior  Court  of  the 
colony,  a  member  of  the  Governor's  Council,  and  influential 
in  public  affairs.  His  father,  Gold  Selleck  Silliman,  was  grad- 
uated from  Yale  College  in  1752,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  a 
few  years  later,  and  soon  became  prosecuting  attorney  of  his 
county.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out  he  was  a  colonel  of 
cavalry  in  the  local  militia.  At  the  head  of  his  regiment  he 
joined  the  forces  under  Washington  at  New  York,  was  in  the 
battles  of  Long  Island  and  White  Plains,  and  enjoyed  the  con- 
fidence of  his  chief.  He  was  made  a  brigadier  general  of  Con- 
necticut troops  and  charged  with  the  defence  of  the  southwest- 
ern frontier  of  that  colony.  His  activity  in  resisting  the  incur- 

140 


BENJAMIN    SILLIMAN. 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER.  I4I 

sions  of  the  British  led  to  the  secret  expedition  which  suc- 
ceeded in  capturing  him.  He  was  held  a  prisoner  nearly  a 
year.  General  Silliman  died  in  1790. 

Benjamin's  mother,  Mary  Fish,  was  descended  from  John 
Alden  and  Priscilla  Mullins,  of  the  Mayflower.  She  was  the 
eldest  daughter  of  Rev.  Joseph  Fish,  of  North  Stonington. 
She  had  been  married  to  Rev.  John  Noyes,  of  New  Haven,  and 
at  the  time  of  her  second  marriage  had  three  children  living. 
Mr.  Silliman  had  also  been  married  before  and  had  a  son, 
William. 

In  the  recollections  of  his  relatives  and  his  early  years, 
written  out  by  Benjamin  Silliman  near  the  close  of  his  life, 
he  describes  his  father  as  a  gentleman  of  the  old  school  and 
a  decidedly  religious  man,  but  without  austerity  or  bigotry. 
All  of  his  large  household,  including  negro  domestics  and  hired 
white  people,  were  expected  to  attend,  so  far  as  practicable, 
daily  prayers,  and  public  worship  on  Sunday.  For  convey- 
ance to  church  they  had  usually  half  a  dozen  horses  and  two 
chaises,  and  the  horses  under  the  saddle  frequently  carried 
two.  "  My  brother  and  I,"  he  writes,  "  were  sometimes  in- 
structed to  take  each  of  us  one  of  the  daughters  of  our  clergy- 
man, the  Rev.  Mr.  Eliot,  who  had  more  girls  than  horses ;  and 
we  were  at  an  age  when  the  jeers  of  our  school-fellows  made 
this  a  rather  embarrassing  duty." 

After  attending  for  a  time  the  public  schools  of  his  neigh- 
bourhood, Benjamin  prepared  for  college  under  the  tuition  of 
his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Andrew  Eliot,  and  entered  Yale  College 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  years,  the  youngest  but  one  in  his  class. 
As  to  his  college  career  his  biographer,  Prof.  George  P.  Fisher, 
writes : 

"  Mr.  Silliman  exhibited  in  his  college  essays  and  debates, 
as  well  as  in  the  letters  written  by  him  in  that  period,  both  a 
maturity  of  thought  and  a  correctness  of  style  hardly  to  be 
expected  in  one  so  young.  He  was  fond  of  writing  verses, 
and  acquired  no  mean  facility  in  versification.  His  closing 
piece  at  graduation  was  a  poem,  as  was  also  the  piece  which 
he  delivered  on  taking  the  master's  degree.  He  does  not 
appear  to  have  shown  an  exclusive  predilection  for  any  one 
department  of  knowledge,  but  attained  to  a  highly  respectable 
proficiency  in  all.  He  speaks  of  himself  as  having  been  un- 
usually fond  of  rhetorical  and  poetical  studies,  but  as  also 


I42  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

taking  delight  in  geometry,  and  being  strongly  interested  in 
natural  phenomena.  His  reading,  as  far  as  it  went  beyond 
the  requirements  of  the  curriculum,  was  chiefly  in  history  and 
English  literature." 

Only  once  in  his  college  course,  it  is  believed,  did  young  Sil- 
liman  expose  himself  to  an  academic  penalty  or  censure.  One 
day  in  his  Freshman  year  the  thirteen-year-old  lad  gave  a  kick 
to  a  stray  football  in  the  college  yard,  and  for  this  offence 
against  ancient  decorum  was  fined  a  sixpence  by  President 
Stiles,  who  happened  to  be  an  eyewitness.  This  incident 
drew  upon  him  some  banter  from  Mr.  Eliot  and  other  friends 
at  home,  who  were  much  amused  that  "  Sober  Ben,"  as  they 
were  wont  to  style  him,  should  be  so  unlucky  as  to  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  law. 

Owing  to  a  severe  wound  in  the  foot  from  an  axe,  which 
was  unskilfully  treated,  the  youth  was  obliged  to  be  absent 
from  college  during  portions  of  his  senior  year.  After  gradu- 
ating he  was  still  a  sufferer  from  this  hurt,  and  unable  to  sus- 
tain continuous  intellectual  labour.  Partly  for  this  reason  and 
partly  because  his  mother  needed  his  aid,  he  spent  the  next 
year  at  home.  For  lack  of  a  guiding  hand  the  farm  lands  left 
by  his  father  had  largely  run  to  waste,  and  he  devoted  himself 
to  reclaiming  them.  He  went  into  the  fields  with  the  labourers 
and  was  almost  entirely  cut  off  from  the  society  of  cultivated 
/  young  men,  which  he  had  enjoyed  for  the  preceding  four  years. 
"In  this  situation,"  says  Prof.  Fisher,  "uncertain  as  he  was 
respecting  his  career  in  the  future,  and  oppressed  with  nervous 
infirmity,  it  is  not  strange  that  he  became  for  a  while  a  prey  to 
gloomy  thoughts  and  apprehensions."  Another  year  brought 
with  it  improved  health  and  a  more  congenial  occupation, 
which  soon  restored  his  cheerfulness.  He  took  charge  of  a 
select  school  in  Wethersfield  for  the  greater  part  of  the  year 
1798,  and  in  October  of  that  year,  having  decided  to  adopt  the 
legal  profession,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  the  Hon.  Simeon 
Baldwin,  in  New  Haven,  whence,  after  completing  his  three 
years'  course  in  law,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1802. 
While  still  a  law  student — in  September,  1799 — and  when  he 
had  just  reached  the  age  of  twenty,  he  was  appointed  a  tutor 
in  Yale  College. 

Up  to  this  time  classical  instruction  had  received  the  pre- 
dominant share  of  attention  at  Yale  College ;  "  theological, 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER.  j^ 

ethical,  and  metaphysical  subjects  were  much  cultivated,  and 
logic  was  also  a  prominent  topic  " ;  mathematics  was  appreci- 
ated ;  much  interest  had  been  aroused  in  astronomy ;  physics 
was  less  cared  for,  and  chemistry  had  been  "  scarcely  men- 
tioned." Mr.  Silliman  was  considering  a  proposition  to  settle 
down  at  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Georgia,  when  in  July,  1801, 
President  Dwight  informed  him  that  the  corporation  of  the 
college  had  several  years  before  resolved  to  establish  a  pro- 
fessorship of  chemistry  and  natural  history  as  soon  as  the 
funds  would  admit  of  it.  The  time  had  come  when  the  reso- 
lution could  be  carried  into  effect,  but  it  was  impossible  to  find 
in  this  country  a  man  properly  qualified  to  discharge  the 
duties  of  the  office,  while  there  were  reasons  that  made  the 
appointment  of  a  foreigner  inexpedient.  The  president  saw 
no  way  but  to  select  a  suitable  young  man  at  home,  and  give 
him  time  to  qualify  himself  for  the  professorship ;  and  he  had 
fixed  upon  Mr.  Silliman  as  the  person  whom  he  would  propose 
to  the  corporation.  Mr.  Silliman  was  inclined  from  the  first  to 
consider  the  offer  favourably,  because,  as  he  has  recorded  in  his 
Reminiscences,  "  the  study  of  Nature  appeared  very  attract- 
ive. In  her  works  there  is  no  falsehood,  although  there  are 
mysteries  to  unveil,  which  is  a  very  interesting  achievement. 
Everything  in  Nature  is  straightforward  and  consistent. 
There  are  no  polluting  influences;  all  the  associations  with 
these  pursuits  are  elevated  and  virtuous,  and  point  toward  the 
infinite  Creator."  The  professorship  was  instituted  in  1802, 
with  a  provision  that  such  time  as  might  be  agreed  upon 
should  be  given  the  professor-elect  to  decide  whether  he  would 
accept  the  appointment,  and  Mr.  Silliman  was  chosen  profess- 
or. Philadelphia  then  "  presented  more  advantages  in  science 
than  any  other  place  in  the  country,"  and  he  went  there  first. 
Here  he  enjoyed  the  instruction,  with  experiments,  of  Dr. 
James  Woodhouse,  of  the  Medical  College,  and  had  as  a  fel- 
low-boarder Robert  Hare,  who  had  just  perfected  his  oxyhy- 
drogen  blowpipe,  and  was  much  occupied  with  the  subject, 
and  enlisted  his  new  friend  in  his  service.  He  also  attended 
the  lectures  of  Dr.  Barton  on  botany  and  of  Dr.  Caspar  Wistar 
on  anatomy  and  surgery,  and  met  Dr.  Priestley  at  the  house 
of  the  latter.  He  received  valuable  suggestions  from  Dr.  Mac- 
lean, of  Princeton,  whom  he  visited  in  his  transits  to  and  from 
Philadelphia ;  and  thus  he  learned  to  regard  the  eminent  pro- 


!44  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

fessor  as  his  earliest  master  in  chemistry,  and  Princeton  as  his 
first  starting-point  in  that  pursuit,  although  he  had  not  an  op- 
portunity to  attend  any  lectures  there.  Having  attended  two 
winters  in  Philadelphia,  he  returned  to  New  Haven  and  began 
to  write  his  lectures.  His  first  lecture  was  delivered  April  4, 
1804,  when  he  was  twenty-four  and  a  half  years  old,  to  a  class 
which  included,  among  other  men  who  afterward  became  dis- 
tinguished, John  C.  Calhoun,  Bishop  Gadsden,  and  John  Pier- 
pont;  the  subject  was  the  history  and  progress,  nature  and 
objects,  of  chemistry.  Four  lectures  were  given  in  a  week — 
sixty  in  the  course — and  some  notices  of  mineralogy  were  in- 
cluded. 

In  the  meantime  the  corporation  of  the  college  had  voted 
to  spend  ten  thousand  dollars  in  Europe  during  the  ensuing 
year,  in  the  purchase  of  books  and  philosophical  and  chem- 
ical apparatus.  Prof.  Silliman  applied  for  the  privilege  of 
going  as  purchasing  agent,  suggesting  that  his  salary,  which 
would  be  continued,  and  the  agent's  commission  would  pay 
his  expenses,  and  he  would  at  the  same  time  have  an  op- 
portunity of  improving  in  his  profession.  His  proposition 
was  accepted ;  armed  with  a  multitude  of  letters  of  intro- 
duction, the  general  effect  of  which  he  found  to  be  equiv- 
alent to  an  order — "  Sir :  Please  to  give  the  bearer  a  dinner, 
and  charge  the  same  to  yours,"  etc. — he  spent  a  year  in 
Europe.  He  performed  experiments  with  Frederick  Accum, 
the  German  chemist,  and  attended  the  lectures  of  Dr. 
George  Pearson  on  chemistry,  materia  medica,  and  thera- 
peutics, in  London ;  heard  Drs.  Hope,  Gregory,  and  Murray, 
in  chemistry  and  geology ;  subscribed  to  Dr.  Munroe's  and 
attended  Dr.  Barclay's  courses  in  anatomy,  at  Edinburgh; 
visited  the  Continent,  and  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  most 
eminent  scientific  men  of  the  day.  Geological  science  at  that 
time,  he  says,  in  his  Reminiscences,  "  did  not  exist  among  us, 
except  in  the  minds  of  a  very  few  individuals,  and  instruction 
was  not  attainable  in  any  public  institutions."  In  Edinburgh 
there  were  learned  and  eloquent  geologists  and  lecturers,  and 
ardent  and  successful  explorers,  and  the  contest  between  the 
Wernerians  and  the  Huttonians  was  at  its  height.  Prof.  Silli- 
man was  interested  in  the  discussion,  and,  giving  his  attention 
to  the  subject,  reached  a  standard  of  attainment  in  geology 
which  he  believed  he  could  not  have  gained  at  home.  He  read 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER.  ^5 

the  arguments  on  both  sides,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  on 
which  geologists  are  generally  now  tacitly  agreed,  that  <4  both 
theories  were  founded  in  truth,  and  that  the  crust  of  the  earth 
had  been  formed  and  greatly  modified  by  the  combined,  or 
sometimes  antagonistic  and  conflicting,  powers  of  fire  and  water." 

Prof.  Silliman  had  already  attended  to  the  care  of  the 
modest  collections  of  minerals  belonging  to  the  college. 
There  were  a  few  metallic  ores  which  had  been  named  by  Dr. 
Adam  Seybert,  of  Philadelphia ;  a  small  collection  which  Dr. 
Semper  had  brought  from  England,  containing  some  beautiful 
specimens,  particularly  in  the  lime  family ;  and  his  own 
collections  made  in  the  mines  of  Derbyshire  and  Cornwall, 
in  England,  and  local  specimens  obtained  in  his  rambles 
among  the  trap-rocks  of  the  Scottish  capital,  with  a  purchased 
suite  of  Italian  polished  marbles,  all  of  which  "when  arranged, 
labelled,  and  described  in  illustration  of  the  mineral  portion  of 
the  chemical  lectures,  served  to  awaken  an  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject of  mineralogy,  and  to  produce  both  aspirations  and  hopes 
looking  toward  a  collection  which  should  by  and  by  deserve 
the  name  of  a  cabinet."  One  of  the  first  things  to  be  done 
after  returning  home  was  to  study  the  geology  of  the  vicinity 
of  New  Haven,  in  the  light  of  the  knowledge  that  had  been 
gained  in  Edinburgh.  The  result  of  this  survey  was  a  report, 
printed  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Connect- 
icut Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  in  which  an  attentive  re- 
perusal  by  the  author  fifty-two  years  afterward  suggested  very 
few  alterations  and  disclosed  no  important  errors.  The  cabi- 
net of  Mr.  Benjamin  D.  Perkins  was  shortly  afterward  pur- 
chased for  a  thousand  dollars,  and  in  1810  the  splendid  cabinet 
of  Colonel  George  Gibbs  was  deposited  in  the  college.  The 
latter  cabinet,  which  attracted  visitors  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  was  bought  fifteen  years  afterward.  While  Prof.  Sil- 
liman was  engaged  in  arranging  it,  the  Rev  Dr.  Ely  accosted 
him  :  "Why,  dominie,  is  there  not  danger  that  with  these  phys- 
ical attractions  you  will  overtop  the  Latin  and  the  Greek?" 
Prof.  Silliman  replied :  "  Sir,  let  the  literary  gentlemen  push 
and  sustain  their  departments.  It  is  my  duty  to  give  full 
effect  to  the  sciences  committed  to  my  care." 

An  American  Journal  of  Mineralogy  had  been  started  by 
Dr.  Archibald  Bruce,  of  New  York,  in  1810,  but  it  was  sus- 
pended after  the  publication  of  four  numbers.  Prof.  Silliman, 


I46  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

at  the  suggestion  of  Colonel  Gibbs,  and  with  the  approbation 
of  Dr.  Bruce,  started,  in  1818,  a  journal  intended  to  include 
the  entire  circle  of  the  physical  sciences  and  their  applica- 
tions. This  was  Silliman's  (now  the  American)  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence, which  is  still  continued  under  the  direction  of  the  grand- 
son of  its  founder. 

The  courses  of  popular  lectures  on  scientific  subjects  which 
were  conducted  by  Prof.  Silliman  in  the  different  cities  of  the 
United  States,  originated  in  1808,  when  a  course  in  chemistry 
for  ladies  and  gentlemen  was  proposed  to  him,  and  gladly 
assented  to,  as  a  scheme  in  the  interest  of  scientific  progress. 
A  class  of  about  forty-five  persons  was  formed,  and  listened  to 
the  instruction  given  them  apparently  with  complete  satisfac- 
tion, for  it  appeared  afterward,  the  lecturer  remarks,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  matter,  that  the  course  "  turned  on  female  hinges," 
and  "  sentiment  lubricated  the  joints.  ...  It  was  my  province 
to  explain  the  affinities  of  matter,  and  I  had  not  advanced  far 
in  my  pleasing  duties  before  I  discovered  that  moral  affinities, 
also  moving  without  my  intervention,  were  playing  an  impor- 
tant part."  One  of  the  affinities  involved  the  professor,  and 
his  marriage  to  one  of  his  hearers,  Miss  Harriet  Trumbull, 
daughter  of  the  second  Governor  Trumbull,  followed  in  the 
course  of  the  next  year.  Many  years  afterward  he  was  in- 
vited to  deliver  a  course  in  Hartford — the  first  out  of  New 
Haven ;  then  followed  courses  in  Lowell,  Boston  (where  "  the 
Orthodox  and  Unitarian  influence  was  united  in  his  favour," 
and  where  he  returned  to  lecture  in  several  successive  years 
afterward),  other  New  England  towns,  and  New  York.  In 
1843  he  lectured  in  Pittsburg,  where  he  received  most  "vivid 
demonstrations  of  kind  and  gratified  feelings  "  ;  the  next  year 
in  Baltimore,  where  he  found  that  "  people  who  came  for  once, 
stayed  " ;  and  afterward  in  Baltimore  again,  Mobile,  New  Or- 
leans, Natchez,  at  Washington  before  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, and  in  St.  Louis.  The  calls  to  lecture  continued  actively 
through  twenty-three  years,  from  1834  to  1857.  In  summing 
up  the  results  of  these  courses,  Prof.  Silliman  expressed  a 
feeling  of  satisfactory  assurance  that  he  had  popularized  sci- 
ence; that  at  no  period  of  his  life  had  his  efforts  been  more 
useful,  both  to  his  country  and  his  family ;  and  that  there  was 
no  part  of  his  professional  career  which  he  reflected  upon  with 
more  satisfaction. 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE  ELDER. 

He  was  accustomed  to  explain  the  success  of  his  lectures, 
and  the  uninterrupted  interest  they  attracted,  by  stating  that 
he  always  prepared  them  "  with  all  possible  care,  and  arranged 
every  experiment  and  illustration  so  as  to  insure  success. 
Then  I  could  stand  before  the  largest  audience  without  anxiety 
or  embarrassment ;  could,  without  manuscript,  clearly  state 
and  explain  my  subject,  and,  when  the  proof  became  necessary, 
I  could  perform  the  experiments  successfully  and  even  beau- 
tifully, and  exhibit  the  specimens  which  some  other  truth  de- 
manded, to  insure  conviction." 

In  1830  Prof.  Silliman  made  a  visit  of  exploration  to  the 
valley  of  Wyoming,  in  Pennsylvania,  and  its  coal  formations, 
where  he  examined  some  hundred  mines  and  localities  of  coal, 
extending  through  forty  miles  in  length;  in  i832-*33  he  was 
engaged,  under  a  commission  from  the  General  Government, 
in  a  scientific  examination  on  the  subject  of  the  culture  and 
manufacture  of  sugar;  and  in  1836  he  made  a  tour  of  investi- 
gation among  the  gold  mines  of  Virginia. 

In  1840  an  association  of  geologists  was  formed  in  Phila- 
delphia for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  progress  of  their 
science  and  its  applications  in  this  country,  and  Prof.  Silli- 
man was  chosen  its  first  president.  This  society  was  in  time 
succeeded  by  the  "  American  Association  of  Geologists  and 
Naturalists,"  and  the  latter  eventually  became  the  "American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science." 

In  1849  Prof.  Silliman,  having  reached  the  age  of  seventy 
years,  tendered  a  resignation  of  his  professorship,  to  take 
effect  at  the  end  of  the  ensuing  academic  year.  The  corpora- 
tion, only  half  accepting  his  resignation,  requested  him  to  con- 
tinue his  lectures  in  the  department  of  mineralogy  and  geol- 
ogy, should  his  life  and  health  be  spared.  Later,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  corporation,  he  reconsidered  his  resignation,  and 
continued  in  the  full  occupation  of  his  professorship  till  1853, 
when,  "  wishing  to  go  out  before  he  should  be  compelled  by 
infirmity,  and  to  march  out  of  the  camp  with  colours  flying," 
he  retired  finally.  "  Thus,"  he  remarks  in  his  journal,  after  re- 
ferring to  the  public  notices  that  were  taken  of  his  retirement 
during  commencement  week,  "  I  have  finished  my  regular  con- 
nection with  Yale  College,  after  having  been  almost  fifty-four 
years  an  officer  of  the  institution — three  years  a  tutor,  fifty- 
one  a  professor,  and  almost  fifty  a  lecturer.  ...  I  seem  to 


148 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


have  attended  my  own  academic  funeral,  and  many  were  the 
mourners  on  the  occasion."  The  corporation  requested  him 
to  continue  as  a  professor  emeritus,  with  the  right  to  vote  in 
the  academical  and  medical  faculties.  His  professorship  was 
divided,  and  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  his  son  placed 
in  the  chair  of  Chemistry,  and  his  son-in-law,  Prof.  James  D. 
Dana,  in  that  of  Geology  and  Mineralogy.  The  name  of  Silli- 
man  was  given  to  both  chairs. 

Prof.  Silliman  was  still  to  continue  a  prominent  figure  be- 
fore the  public,  kept  so  by  other  events  than  those  connected 
with  science  and  the  affairs  of  the  college.  A  few  months 
after  his  resignation  the  Kansas-Nebraska  controversy  rose 
to  its  height,  and  the  Republican  party  was  born  amid  the 
convulsions  it  excited.  Prof.  Silliman  had  always  abhorred 
slavery,  and  he  saw  in  these  disputes  great  moral  issues,  and 
the  question  of  the  equal  rights  of  citizens  of  all  the  States  to 
settle  in  the  Territories  and  defend  themselves  there.  His 
active  interest  in  these  matters,  and  the  works  by  which  he 
showed  it,  called  out  bitter  partisan  reprobation,  and  this  in 
turn  invoked  eloquent  and  deserved  eulogies  of  his  pure  char- 
acter and  his  attainments  irt  science  from  Senators  Foster  and 
Dixon  in  the  United  States  Senate. 

Prof.  Silliman  kept  even  pace  with  the  progress  of  sci- 
ence and  scientific  ideas  as  they  were  developed  through  all 
his  career,  and  let  his  religious  faith  shine  at  the  same  time 
with  a  light  of  even  brilliancy.  The  possibility  that  there  was 
a  conflict  or  could  be  a  conflict  does  not  seem  even  to  have 
occurred  to  him.  From  his  earliest  college  days,  piety  and  a 
firm  devotion  in  religious  faith  seem  to  have  formed  a  promi- 
nent side  of  his  character ;  yet  he  never  hesitated  to  accept 
the  most  startling  discovery,  when  it  proved  deserving  accept- 
ance. "  Now,  at  eighty-two  and  a  half  years  of  age,"  he  says, 
March  i,  1862,  "I  can  truly  declare  that,  in  the  study  and  ex- 
hibition of  science  to  my  pupils  and  my  fellow-men,  I  have 
never  forgotten  to  give  all  the  honour  and  glory  to  the  infinite 
Creator,  happy  if  I  might  be  the  honoured  interpreter  of  a  por- 
tion of  his  works,  and  of  the  beautiful  structure  and  benefi- 
cent laws  discovered  therein  by  the  labours  of  many  illustrious 
predecessors.  For  this  I  claim  no  merit.  It  is  the  result  to 
which  right  reason  and  sound  philosophy,  as  well  as  religion, 
would  naturally  lead.  While  I  have  never  concealed  my  con- 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER.  ^Q 

victions  on  these  subjects,  nor  hesitated  to  declare  them  on 
all  proper  occasions,  I  have  also  declared  my  belief  that  while 
natural  religion  stands  as  the  basis  of  revelation,  consisting  as 
it  does  of  the  facts  and  laws  which  form  the  domain  of  science, 
science  has  never  revealed  a  system  of  mercy  commensurate 
with  the  moral  wants  of  man.  In  Nature,  in  God's  creation, 
we  discover  only  laws — laws  of  undeviating  strictness,  and 
sure  penalties  annexed  for  their  violation.  There  is  associated 
with  natural  laws  no  system  of  mercy ;  that  dispensation  is 
not  revealed  in  Nature,  and  is  contained  in  the  Scriptures 
alone.  With  the  double  view  just  presented,  I  feel  that  Sci- 
ence and  Religion  may  walk  hand  in  hand."  "  For  his  own 
part,"  says  Prof.  Fisher,  from  whose  rich  biography  we 
have  drawn  freely  in  the  composition  of  this  sketch,  "  he  felt 
that  the  Bible  was  a  revelation  from  God.  .  .  .  Not  being  in 
the  habit  of  resorting  to  the  Scriptures  for  information  in 
physical  science,  he  had  valued  its  early  pages  for  the  pure  and 
sublime  theism  which  they  inculcated.  .  .  .  Nor  did  he  deem 
it  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  author  of  Genesis,  however  in- 
structed by  a  higher  light,  was  himself  cognizant  of  the  truths 
of  geology,  especially  the  truth  of  the  great  antiquity  of  the 
globe,  and  the  length  of  time  consumed  in  the  geological 
changes."  The  idea  of  the  length  of  geological  time,  as  pre- 
sented in  his  lectures,  was  novel  to  the  majority  of  his  audi- 
tors, and  evidently  shocked  the  prejudices  of  many  of  them, 
but  he  maintained  it  with  vigour,  and  generally  left  a  good  im- 
pression regarding  it  in  the  6nd.  Concerning  the  opponents 
of  these  ideas  among  the  clergy,  he  wrote  to  Dr.  Hitchcock  in 
1837  :  "I  believe,  with  you,  if  they  were  masters  of  our  sub- 
ject, they  would  think  as  we  do.  Some  of  them  are  candid 
and  forbearing;  others  find  no  insuperable  difficulties ;  others 
are  silent  because  they  feel  that  they  do  not  understand  the 
matter ;  but  a  few  are  loud,  confident,  and  uncharitable,  while 
it  is  obvious  they  know  not  whereof  they  affirm,  .  .  .  but  I  see 
a  strong  purpose  on  the  part  of  some  to  hold  no  terms  with 
geology,  and  to  insist  upon  the  literal  and  limited  understand- 
ing of  the  history ;  but  they  will  find  themselves  deserted,  for 
the  matter  will  in  time  come  right."  Of  a  particular  attack  on 
the  geological  theory  he  wrote  to  Prof.  Hitchcock :  "  You 
and  I  know  that  any  attempt  to  impair  geological  evidence,  or 
to  reconcile  it  with  the  popular  view  of  time,  must  be  abortive. 


150  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

No  matter  how  violent  or  bitter  our  assailant  may  be,  doubt- 
less he  will  be  more  so  in  proportion  to  his  ignorance  of  geol- 
ogy and  to  the  strength  of  his  prejudices." 

Mrs.  Silliman  died  in  January,  1850,  and  Prof.  Silliman 
was  married  a  second  time,  in  the  following  year,  to  Mrs. 
Sarah  I.  Webb,  of  Woodstock,  Connecticut.  He  had  nine  chil- 
dren, of  whom  one  son  and  four  daughters  lived  to  adult  age. 
The  son  was  Prof.  Benjamin  Silliman,  the  younger,  and  the 
daughters  were  Maria  Trumbull,  who  married  John  B.  Church ; 
Faith  Wadsworth,  who  married  Prof.  O.  P.  Hubbard  ;  Henrietta 
Frances,  the  wife  of  Prof.  James  D.  Dana;  and  Julia,  who  mar- 
ried Rev.  Edward  W.  Oilman.  Prof.  Silliman's  death  was  sup- 
posed to  be  due  to  an  affection  of  the  heart,  apparently  in- 
duced by  a  neuralgic  attack  which  he  incurred  from  attending 
a  meeting  on  behalf  of  the  Sanitary  Commission,  on  the  i3th 
of  November,  1864.  He  was  confined  to  the  house  for  several 
days,  but  seemed  afterward  to  recover,  and  made  several  calls 
in  the  neighbourhood ;  but  on  the  24th — Thanksgiving  day — 
he  died,  instantly  and  without  a  struggle,  just  as  he  had  re- 
marked that  he  might  perhaps  go  out  to  church. 

Prof.  Silliman,  says  Prof.  Fisher,  would  have  been  the  last 
to  claim  that  he  had  that  rare  insight  of  genius  which  divines 
the  secrets  of  Nature.  His  whole  turn  was  more  prac- 
tical than  speculative.  "  His  perceptions  were  quick,  his 
judgment  sound,  and  all  his  mental  operations  were  marked 
by  good  sense."  His  qualities  "well  fitted  him  for  his  pecul- 
iar work,  and  that  was  to  collect  and  diffuse  scientific  truth. 
.  .  .  Nor  is  he  without  merit  as  an  investigator,  although  his 
distinction  does  not  lie  here.  He  was  never  very  careful  to 
claim  for  himself  the  credit  of  scientific  discovery.  At  the 
same  time,  he  took  delight  in  bringing  honour  to  the  discov- 
eries of  others."  He  prepared  an  edition  of  Henry's  Chemis- 
try, which  appeared  in  1808,  with  the  modest  announcement, 
"  To  which  are  added  notes  by  a  professor  in  this  country." 
While  this  work  was  going  through  the  press,  a  remarkable 
meteor  passed  over  New  England  (December,  1807),  and  ex- 
ploded over  Weston,  Connecticut,  where  several  stones  fell  to 
the  ground.  He  visited  the  scene,  and,  besides  publishing  a 
popular  account  of  the  facts  in  the  Connecticut  Herald,  made 
them  the  subject  of  a  scientific  examination  and  report  before 
the  Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  afterward 


BENJAMIN   SILLIMAN,  THE   ELDER.  jjjj 

republished  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Connecticut  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  and  read  before  the  Philosophical  Society 
of  London  and  the  Academy  of  Sciences  in  Paris.  His  two 
visits  to  Europe  (the  second  one  was  in  1851)  were  followed 
by  books  of  travels,  both  of  which  were  received  with  great 
satisfaction,  while  the  earlier  one  (1810)  was  highly  commend- 
ed, abroad  as  well  as  at  home,  as  one  of  the  best  works  of  its 
class.  He  was  the  first  to  obtain  potassium  in  this  country, 
and  the  first  to  notice  and  record  the  effect  of  a  powerful  bat- 
tery in  volatilizing  carbon  and  transferring  it  from  the  posi- 
tive to  the  negative  pole  in  a  state  of  vapour.  An  account  of 
his  experiments  with  the  oxyhydrogen  blowpipe  was  published 
in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci- 
ences in  1813.  He  published  an  account  of  a  journey  between 
Hartford  and  Quebec  in  1820,  an  edition  of  Bakewell's  Geology 
in  1829,  and  a  text-book  on  chemistry,  in  two  volumes,  in 
1830.  It  was  largely  through  his  influence  that  the  Scien- 
tific School,  started  by  the  younger  Prof.  Silliman  in  1842, 
which  was  afterward  endowed  by  the  gentleman  whose  name 
it  bears  as  the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  was  adopted  by  the 
college  as  one  of  its  departments,  in  1846  and  1847.  Prof.  Sil- 
liman was  for  many  years  in  regular  correspondence  with 
the  most  eminent  scientific  men  of  Europe,  among  whom  may 
be  named  Berzelius,  Robert  Bakewell,  Humboldt,  Carl  Ritter, 
Lyell,  Sir  R.  I.  Murchison,  Richard  Owen,  Daubeny,  Herschel, 
ana  Dr.  Mantell.  Some  of  these  he  never  knew  personally, 
but  was  brought  into  communication  with  them  through  a 
common  interest  in  science. 


JOHN   JAMES    AUDUBON. 

1780-1851. 

WHEN  Audubon's  fame  was  just  beginning,  "  Christopher 
North  "  (Prof.  Wilson,  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and 
editor  of  Blackwood's  Magazine)  wrote,  under  the  form  of  a 
dialogue  between  himself  and  the  Ettrick  Shepherd  (James 
Hogg,  the  poet),  as  follows :  * 

"North.  What  a  pity,  James,  that  you  were  not  in  Edin- 
burgh in  time  to  see  my  friend  Audubon's  exhibition  ! 

"  Shepherd.  An  exhibition  o'  what  ? 

"North.  Of  birds  painted  to  the  life.  Almost  the  whole 
American  ornithology,  true  to  Nature  as  if  the  creatures  were 
in  their  native  haunts  in  the  forests,  or  on  the  seashores.  Not 
stiff  and  staring  like  stuffed  specimens,  but  in  every  imagina- 
ble characteristic  attitude,  perched,  wading,  or  a-wing — not  a 
feather,  smooth  or  ruffled,  out  of  its  place — every  song,  chirp, 
chatter,  or  cry  made  audible  by  the  power  of  genius. 

"  Shepherd.  Where  got  he  sae  weel  acquaint  wi'  a'  the 
tribes — for  do  they  not  herd  in  swamps  and  woods  where  man's 
foot  intrudes  not — and  the  wilderness  is  guarded  by  the  rat- 
tlesnake, fearsome  watchman,  wi'  nae  ither  bouets  than  his 
ain  fiery  eyne  ? 

"North.  For  upward  of  twenty  years  the  enthusiastic  Au- 
dubon  lived  in  the  remotest  woods,  journeying  to  and  fro  on 
foot  thousands  of  miles — or  sailing  on  great  rivers,  great  as 
any  seas — with  his  unerring  rifle,  slaughtering  only  to  embalm 
his  prey  by  an  art  of  his  own,  in  form  and  hue  unchanged,  un- 
changeable— and  now,  for  the  sum  of  one  shilling,  may  anybody 
that  chooses  it  behold  the  images  of  all  the  splendid  and  gor- 
geous birds  of  that  continent. 

*  Noctes  Ambrosianse  (Blackwood's  Magazine),  No.  XXX,  January,  1827. 

152 


J.  J.   AUDUBON. 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON.  ^3 

"  Shepherd.  Where's  the  exhibition  now  ? 

"  North.  At  Glasgow,  I  believe — where  I  have  no  doubt  it 
will  attract  thousands  of  delighted  spectators.  I  must  get 
the  friend  who  gave  a  glance  over  Selby's  Ornithology  to  tell 
the  world  at  large  more  of  Audubon.  He  is  the  greatest  artist 
in  his  own  walk  that  ever  lived,  and  can  not  fail  to  reap  the 
reward  of  his  genius  and  perseverance  and  adventurous  zeal 
in  his  own  beautiful  branch  of  natural  history,  both  in  fame 
and  fortune." 

John  James  Audubon  was  born  near  New  Orleans,  May  4, 
1780,  and  died  at  the  present  Audubon  Park,  New  York  city, 
January  27,  1851.  His  father,  the  son  of  a  fisherman  of  La 
Vendee,  was  a  French  naval  officer,  who  rose  to  the  rank  of  ad- 
miral and  came  to  America  with  Rochambeau  and  De  Grasse, 
was  present  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  and  became  an  enthu- 
siastic American  himself.  He  had  purchased  a  plantation  in 
Louisiana,  then  a  French  province,  while  the  American  Revo- 
lution was  still  in  progress.  A  few  years  later  he  removed  to 
Santo  Domingo,  where  his  wife*  was  murdered  in  an  uprising 
of  the  blacks.  He  then  returned  to  Louisiana,  where  he  mar- 
ried a  lady  of  that  colony,  of  Spanish  descent,  named  Anne 
Moynette,  and  not  long  after  took  his  family  to  France.  The 
son  imbibed  a  love  of  Nature  at  an  extremely  early  age. 
This  was  probably  strengthened  by  his  short  residence  on  the 
West  Indian  plantation,  and  was  not  repressed,  but  mastered 
the  situation  when  he  was  taken  to  France  to  be  educated.  It 
is  recorded  of  him  that  he  was  accustomed  to  amuse  himself 
when  a  mere  child  by  trying  to  draw  the  birds  he  saw  around 
him;  and  that,  his  crude  efforts  not  being  satisfactory,  he 
used  to  make  a  bonfire  of  them  at  each  birthday.  His  father 
desired  him  to  be  qualified  for  some  occupation  connected  with 
the  navy  or  with  engineering,  and  having  bought  an  estate 
near  Nantes,  left  him  there  in  charge  of  his  stepmother  to  be 
taught  mathematics,  drawing,  geography,  fencing,  and  music. 
His  drawing  master  was  the  celebrated  artist  David,  who  set 
him  to  drawing  "  horses'  heads  and  the  limbs  of  giants,"  but 
he  preferred  birds,  and  improved  such  opportunities  as  he 
could  get  to  exercise  himself  upon  them,  and  spent  much  of 

*  Little  is  known  about  the  naturalist's  mother.     It  is  thought  that  she  was 
a  Mile.  La  Foret. 
II 


154 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


his  time  in  excursions  into  the  woods,  collecting  specimens, 
and  making  drawings  of  them.  The  real  supervision  of  his 
operations  was  with  his  indulgent  stepmother,  who  gave  him 
ample  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his  own  tastes.  When  Audu- 
bon's  father  returned  from  sea  he  was  astonished  at  the  large 
collection  his  son  had  made,  and  then  asked  what  progress  he 
had  made  in  his  other  studies.  The  reply  not  being  satisfac- 
tory, he  took  the  youth  in  hand  himself,  and  kept  him  for  a 
year  in  the  close  study  of  mathematics.  But  every  opportunity 
for  natural  history  rambles  was  still  improved. 

Either  at  this  time  or  during  a  later  stay  of  a  year  at 
Nantes,  young  Audubon  is  credited  with  having  made  a  hun- 
dred drawings  of  European  birds.  Three  specimens  of  these 
works  have  come  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt,  who 
has  described  them  in  The  Auk.  They  are  all  drawn  in  a 
combination  of  crayon  and  water  colours,  on  a  thin  kind  of 
drawing  paper;  are  numbered  44,  77,  and  96,  and  represent  the 
magpie,  the  coot,  and  the  green  woodpecker.  The  earliest  of 
the  sketches  is  the  magpie,  represented  as  of  life-size  and 
standing  on  the  ground.  "  The  execution  is  quite  crude, 
though  the  naturalist  '  sticks  out '  in  it,  for,  notwithstanding 
the  somewhat  awkward  position  the  bird  is  in,  there  is  life 
in  it."  The  second  picture,  that  of  a  coot,  "is  a  marked  im- 
provement on  the  magpie.  Far  more  pains  have  been  taken 
with  the  feet,  legs,  bill,  and  eye,  though  little  has  been  gained 
in  the  natural  attitude  of  the  bird.  .  .  .  Except  very  faintly  in 
the  wing,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  individualize  the  feath- 
ers, the  entire  body  being  of  a  dead  black,  worked  in  either  by 
burned  cork  or  crayon."  Dr.  Shufeldt  also  remarks  that,  "as 
is  usually  the  case  among  juvenile  artists,  both  this  bird  and 
the  magpie  are  represented  upon  direct  lateral  view,  and  no 
evidence  has  yet  appeared  to  hint  to  us  of  the  wonderful  power 
Audubon  eventually  came  to  possess  in  figuring  his.  birds  in 
their  every  attitude."  The  green  woodpecker  "is  a  wonderful 
improvement,  in  every  particular,  upon  both  of  the  others. 
The  details  of  the  plumage  and  other  structures  are  brought 
out  with  great  delicacy,  and  refinement  of  touch ;  while  the 
attitude  of  the  bird,  an  old  male,  is  even  better  than  many  of 
those  published  in  his  famous  work.  The  colours  are  soft,  and 
have  been  so  handled  as  to  lend  to  the  plumage  a  very  flossy 
and  natural  appearance,  while  the  old  trunk,  upon  the  side  of 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON.  ^5 

which  the  bird  is  represented,  presents  several  evidences  of  an 
increase  of  the  power  to  paint  such  objects." 

When  about  seventeen  or  eighteen  years  old,  young  Audu- 
bon  returned  to  the  United  States.  Since  he  had  no  inclina- 
tion to  the  art  of  war,  for  which  he  had  been  intended,  his 
father,  willing  to  gratify  his  now  decided  tastes,  settled  him 
upon  a  farm,  Mill  Grove,  which  he  owned  near  Philadel- 
phia, at  the  mouth  of  Perkiomen  Creek.  Here  he  had  full 
opportunity  for  the  gratification  of  his  huntsman's  and  nat- 
uralist's inclination,  and  improved  it  so  industriously  that 
he  appeared  to  be  good  for  little  else.  Desiring  to  form 
a  matrimonial  engagement  with  Lucy  Bakewell,  he  was  ad- 
vised by  the  father  of  the  young  lady  to  go  into  business, 
and  he  accordingly  entered  the  employment  of  a  firm  in  New 
York ;  but  even  here  it  was  the  study  of  Nature  and  not  trade 
that  engaged  his  attention.  "  For  a  period  of  twenty  years," 
he  confesses  in  the  biographical  preface  to  his  Birds,  "  my  life 
was  a  series  of  vicissitudes.  I  tried  various  branches  of  com- 
merce, but  they  all  proved  unprofitable,  doubtless  because  my 
whole  mind  was  ever  filled  with  my  passion  for  rambling  and 
admiring  those  objects  of  Nature  from  which  alone  I  received 
the  purest  gratification."  It  is  in  connection  with  the  relation 
of  the  story  of  a  hurricane,  while  he  was  living  at  Henderson, 
Ky.,  years  after  his  Philadelphia  experiences,  that  he  says  that, 
just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  awful  storm,  his  thoughts 
were,  "  for  once,  at  least,  in  the  course  of  my  life,  entirely  en- 
gaged in  commercial  speculations."  He  soon  gave  up  his 
New  York  engagement,  and  shortly  afterward  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Ferdinand  Rosier  to  go  into  trade  at  Louisville, 
Kentucky.  His  settlement  at  this  place  having  been  deter- 
mined upon,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Bakewell  in  April,  1808. 
This  lady  was  a  descendant  of  the  Peverils  of  the  Peak,  one 
of  whom  has  given  name  to  one  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  novels, 
and  was  a  relative  of  the  famous  British  geologist  Bakewell. 
She  proved  a  congenial  wife  to  the  naturalist,  and  gave  him 
valuable  aid  while  he  had  his  great  work  under  way,  by  helping 
him  to  pay  the  expenses  of  his  enterprise  out  of  the  fruits  of 
her  own  industry.  The  farm  at  Mill  Grove  was  sold,  a  stock 
of  goods  was  purchased  with  the  proceeds,  and  Audubon  re- 
moved with  his  wife  to  Louisville,  making  the  journey  down 
the  Ohio  River  in  a  flatboat,  with  two  rowers.  At  Louisville, 


156  PIONEERS   QF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

again,  he  left  business  to  his  partner,  and  occupied  himself 
with  natural  history  and  his  drawings. 

In  1810  he  was  visited  at  his  store  by  Alexander  Wilson, 
who  came  to  solicit  subscriptions  to  his  Ornithology.  He  was 
about  to  sign  the  list,  when  his  partner  suggested  to  him,  in 
French,  that  he  could  make  better  drawings  than  Wilson,  and 
probably  knew  as  much  about  American  birds  as  he.  Wilson 
understood  the  remark,  and  asked  Audubon  if  he  had  any 
drawings  of  birds.  Audubon  exhibited  what  he  had,  and,  to 
Wilson's  question  if  he  intended  to  publish  his  work,  replied 
that  he  had  never  thought  of  it.  The  two  naturalists  seem 
to  have  spent  some  time  together.  Audubon,  it  is  stated,  ex- 
plored the  woods  with  Wilson,  lent  him  his  drawings,  and  aided 
him  in  various  ways ;  although  Wilson  entered  in  his  notes 
against  Louisville  that  "  science  or  literature  had  not  one  friend 
in  the  place." 

As  might  be  expected,  the  business  at  Louisville  was  not 
prosperous.  After  four  years,  marked  by  two  removals  to  se- 
cure better  success,  the  partnership  was  dissolved,  and  Au- 
dubon removed  to  Henderson,  Kentucky,  in  1812.  Another 
business  adventure,  entered  into*  with  his  brother-in-law  in 
New  Orleans,  failed.  Only  natural  history  prospered  with 
him.  A  very  large  proportion  of  his  work  in  this  line,  which 
bore  so  noble  and  so  abundant  fruit  in  later  years,  was  done 
during  his  residence  in  Henderson.  Aiming  to  represent  the 
birds  which  he  drew  in  position  as  far  as  possible,  he  adopted 
ingenious  devices  to  secure  correct  views  of  them  as  they 
looked  in  Nature.  Those  which  he  had  to  shoot  he  would 
afterward  set  up  and  support  in  natural  attitudes,  while  he 
painted  them ;  others  he  would  view,  with  their  actual  sur- 
roundings, through  a  telescope.  Audubon's  father  died  about 
1812,  leaving  to  him  the  estate  in  France  and  seventeen  thou- 
sand dollars,  which  had  been  deposited  with  a  merchant  in 
Richmond,  Virginia.  "Audubon,  however,  took  no  steps  to 
obtain  possession  of  his  estate  in  France,  and  in  after-years, 
when  his  sons  had  grown  up,  sent  one  of  them  to  France  for 
the  purpose  of  legally  transferring  the  property  to  his  own 
sister  Rosa."  Before  Audubon  was  able  to  obtain  the  money 
from  the  merchant  in  Richmond,  the  latter  died  insolvent ;  and 
so  no  benefit  accrued  to  the  naturalist  from  either  part  of  his 
legacy. 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON.  j^ 

By  this  failure  of  his  expectations  and  other  disasters,  Au- 
dubon  was  compelled  to  work  for  a  living.  He  took  up  the 
drawing  of  crayon  portraits  with  much  success,  and  seemed  to 
get  a  new  start  in  life.  In  a  short  time  he  received  an  invitation 
to  become  a  curator  of  the  museum  at  Cincinnati,  and  for  the 
preparation  of  birds  received  a  liberal  remuneration.  In  con- 
junction with  this  situation  he  opened  a  drawing  school  in 
the  same  city,  and  obtained  from  this  employment  additional 
emolument  sufficient  to  support  his  family  comfortably.  His 
teaching  succeeded  well  until  several  of  his  pupils  started  on 
their  own  account.  The  work  at  the  museum  having  been  fin- 
ished, Audubon  fell  back  upon  his  portrait  painting  and  such 
resources  as  his  genius  could  command.  Applying  for  assist- 
ance to  an  old  friend  whom  he  had  helped  into  business,  the 
ungrateful  wretch  declared  he  would  do  nothing  for  his  bene- 
factor, and  further  added  that  he  would  not  even  recommend 
one  who  had  such  wandering  habits.  On  more  occasions  than 
this  his  genius  for  discovery  was  made  an  argument  against 
him. 

In  October,  1820,  Audubon  left  Cincinnati,  and  sailed  down 
the  Ohio  in  company  with  Captain  Cumming,  a  civil  engineer, 
who  had  been  appointed  to  make  a  survey  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  He  was  provided  with  letters  of  introduction  from 
General  Harrison  and  Henry  Clay,  and  intended  a  long  orni- 
thological excursion  through  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and  Florida, 
up  Red  River,  and  down  the  Arkansas.  At  Bayou  Sara,  in  the 
following  June,  he  accepted  an  engagement  with  Mrs.  Perrie 
to  teach  her  daughter  drawing  during  the  summer  months  at 
sixty  dollars  a  month.  Mrs.  Feme's  real  aim  is  supposed  to 
have  been  to  provide  for  Audubon  an  opportunity  to  carry  on 
his  pursuits  under  the  guise  of  an  employment  which  would  be 
congenial  and  not  interfere  with  his  work.  Later  in  the  year 
he  was  invited  to  join  another  artist  in  painting  a  panorama 
of  New  Orleans.  But,  he  wrote  in  his  journal,  "  My  birds,  my 
beloved  birds  of  America,  occupy  all  my  time,  and  nearly  all 
my  thoughts,  and  I  do  not  wish  to  see  any  other  perspective 
than  the  last  specimen  of  those  drawings." 

For  the  first  two  months  of  1822  it  is  written  by  his  wife  in 
her  Life,  "  The  records  of  Audubon's  life  are  sparse  and  imper- 
fect, on  account  of  his  inability  to  purchase  a  book  to  write  his 
journal  in !  "  The  one  at  last  obtained  was  made  of  thin, 


158 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 


poor  paper,  and  the  records  entered  are  rather  in  keeping  with 
his  financial  difficulties.  It  took  all  his  means  at  this  time  to 
supply  his  family  with  the  necessaries  of  life ;  and  in  order  to 
obtain  money  to  educate  the  children,  his  wife  undertook  the 
duties  of  a  situation  in  which  she  had  charge  of  and  educated 
the  children  of  a  Mr.  Brand.  They  afterward  removed  to 
Natchez,  where  Audubon  drew  and  taught  drawing  in  the  col- 
lege at  Washington,  Mississippi,  and  Mrs.  Audubon  taught ; 
and  then  to  Bayou  Sara,  Louisiana,  where  Mrs.  Audubon  es- 
tablished a  school,  with  the  proceeds  of  which  she  was  enabled 
to  aid  materially  in  the  publication  of  the  Birds,  and  Audubon 
assisted  her  by  teaching  music  and  dancing.  A  member  of 
one  of  the  families,  in  which  Mrs.  Audubon  was  a  governess 
during  this  period,  has  furnished  Dr.  Shufeldt  with  a  child- 
hood's reminiscence  of  the  naturalist.  "  He  was  with  us,"  she 
says,  "  eight  months,  but  during  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
was  wandering  all  over  the  State,  walking  almost  the  entire 
time ;  no  insect,  worm,  reptile,  bird,  or  animal  escaped  his  no- 
tice. He  would  make  a  collection,  return  home  and  draw 
his  crayon  sketches,  when  his  son  John  would  stuff  the  birds 
and  such  animals  as  he  wished  to  preserve." 

In  the  spring  of  1824,  Audubon,  with  two  hundred  draw- 
ings, representing  about  a  thousand  birds,  went  to  Philadelphia 
in  order  to  obtain  help  to  complete  his  ornithological  work. 
He  was  soon  satisfied,  it  is  said  in  Mrs.  Audubon's  Life,  that 
the  venture  would  be  successful.  Having  purchased  a  new 
suit  of  clothes  and  dressed  himself  with  extreme  neatness,  he 
called  upon  Dr.  Mease,  an  old  friend,  and  was  introduced  by 
him  to  several  artists,  who  paid  him  pleasant  attentions.  He 
was  also  introduced  to  Prince  Canino,  son  of  Lucien  Bona- 
parte, "  who  examined  my  birds,"  Audubon  writes,  "  and  was 
complimentary  in  his  praises.  He  was  at  the  time  engaged  on 
a  volume  of  American  birds,  which  was  soon  to  be  published ; 
but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  admiring  another  natural- 
ist's work. — April  i2th.  Met  the  prince  at  Dr.  Mease's,  and 
he  expressed  a  wish  to  examine  my  drawings  more  particu- 
larly. I  found  him  very  gentlemanly.  He  called  in  his  car- 
riage and  took  me  to  Peale,  the  artist,  who  was  drawing  speci- 
mens of  birds  for  his  work ;  but  from  want  of  knowledge  of 
the  habits  of  birds  in  a  wild  state,  he  represented  them  as 
if  seated  for  a  portrait,  instead  of  their  own  lively,  animated 


JOHN  JAMES   AUDUBON. 

ways  when  seeking  their  natural  food  or  pleasure.  Other  nota- 
ble persons  called  to  see  my  drawings,  and  encouraged  me 
with  their  remarks.  The  Prince  Canino  introduced  me  to 
the  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  pronounced  my 
birds  superb  and  worthy  of  a  pupil  of  David.  I  formed  the 
acquaintance  of  Lesueur,  the  zoologist  and  artist,  who  was 
greatly  delighted  with  my  drawings."  Audubon  was  engaged 
by  Prince  Canino  to  superintend  his  drawings  intended  for 
publication ;  but  his  terms  being  much  dearer  than  Alexander 
Wilson's,  he  was  asked  to  discontinue  his  work.  "  I  had  now," 
he  writes,  "  determined  to  go  to  Europe  with  my  *  treasures,' 
since  I  was  assured  nothing  so  fine  in  the  way  of  ornithologi- 
cal representations  existed.  I  worked  incessantly  to  complete 
my  series  of  drawings.  On  inquiry,  I  found  Sully  and  Lesueur 
made  a  poor  living  by  their  brush.  I  had  some  pupils  offered 
at  a  dollar  per  lesson;  but  I  found  the  citizens  unwilling  to 
pay  for  art,  although  they  affected  to  patronize  it.  I  exhibited 
my  drawings  for  a  week,  but  found  the  show  did  not  pay,  and 
so  determined  to  remove  myself." 

Thus,  notwithstanding  the  pleasant  social  aspect  of  his 
reception  in  Philadelphia,  he  does  not  appear  to  have  been  en- 
couraged in  its  material  promise  ;  and  he  met  with  a  misfortune 
which  would  have  depressed  the  spirits  of  the  bravest  and 
most  sanguine.  His  plates,  the  fruit  of  years  of  labour  and 
of  almost  exclusive  preoccupation  during  the  whole  time,  were 
destroyed  in  a  single  night  by  rats.  He  went  to  work  at  once, 
however,  to  restore  his  drawings,  and  did  so.  Mr.  McMurtrie, 
the  conchologist,  advised  him  to  take  his  drawings  to  Eng- 
land. Prince  Canino  advised  him  to  go  to  France.  He  pro- 
ceeded to  New  York,  having  left  Philadelphia  "  free  from  debt 
and  free  from  anxiety  about  the  future."  In  New  York  he 
visited  the  museum  and  "  found  the  specimens  of  stuffed  birds 
set  up  in  unnatural  and  constrained  attitudes.  This  appears 
to  be  the  universal  practice,  and  the  world  owes  to  me  the 
adoption  of  the  plan  of  drawings  from  animated  nature.  Wil- 
son is  the  only  one  who  has  in  any  tolerable  degree  adopted 
my  plan." 

The  prospect  for  having  his  drawings  published  in  New 
York  did  not  appear  very  encouraging,  although  it  seemed 
more  hopeful  than  it  had  been  in  Philadelphia.  He  visited 
the  Lyceum,  and  his  portfolio  was  examined  by  the  members 


!6o  PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA. 

of  the  Institute,  among  whom,  he  writes,  "  I  felt  awkward  and 
uncomfortable.  After  living  among  such  people  I  felt  clouded 
and  depressed ;  remember  that  I  have  done  nothing,  and  fear 
that  I  may  die  unknown.  I  feel  I  am  strange  to  all  but  the 
birds  of  America.  In  a  few  days  I  shall  be  in  the  woods  and 
quite  forgotten."  On  the  next  day :  "  My  spirits  low,  and  I 
long  for  the  woods  again  ;  but  the  prospect  of  becoming  known 
prompts  me  to  remain  another  day."  He  was  invited  by  the 
artist,  Vanderlyn,  to  sit  for  a  portrait  of  General  Jackson, 
whom  his  figure  was  thought  to  resemble  considerably. 

From  New  York  he  proceeded  up  the  Hudson  and  into  the 
lake  region,  visiting  Niagara,  but  not  crossing  over  to  Goat 
Island  on  account  of  the  low  state  of  his  finances ;  then  re- 
turned by  way  of  Erie,  Pittsburg,  and  the  rivers,  to  his  home 
in  Bayou  Sara.  His  wife  was  receiving  an  income  of  nearly 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year  from  her  labours  in  teaching,  and 
he  took  charge  of  a  class  in  dancing  by  which  he  cleared  two 
thousand  dollars ;  and  with  this  capital  and  his  wife's  savings 
he  was  now  able  to  foresee  a  successful  issue  to  his  great  orni- 
thological work. 

He  had  determined  upon  going  to  England,  where,  although 
he  knew  no  one,  he  hoped  that  he  might  find  a  way  to  get  his 
plates  engraved.  He  sailed  from  New  Orleans  in  May,  1826, 
and  arrived  in  Liverpool  on  the  2oth  of  July.  He  exhibited 
his  pictures,  with  satisfaction  to  his  visitors  at  Liverpool  and 
Manchester,  to  their  admiration  at  Edinburgh.  He  made 
friends  of  Herschel,  Sir  Walter  Scott,  and  "  Christopher  North," 
who  has  left  the  record  of  his  warm  admiration  for  the  man 
and  his  work  in  two  of  his  essays,  and  of  Cuvier,  Humboldt, 
and  Saint-Hilaire  in  France.  He  resolved  to  go  on  with  the 
publication  of  his  works,  although  his  friends  advised  him  that 
the  risk  was  too  great  to  venture  upon.  In  1827  he  issued 
the  prospectus  of  The  Birds  of  America,  to  be  published  in 
numbers  of  five  folio  plates  each,  the  whole  to  be  included  in 
four  volumes,  and  to  be  sold  for  one  thousand  dollars  a  copy. 
The  entire  cost  of  the  work  would  exceed  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars;  yet  when  the  prospectus  was  published  he  had 
not  money  enough  to  pay  for  getting  out  the  first  number. 
With  the  aid  of  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence  he  sold  some  pictures, 
and  was  enabled  to  carry  himself  over  this  difficulty ;  and  this 
led  the  way  to  his  finding  a  regular  means  of  support  while  his 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON.  I6I 

enterprise  was  going  on,  by  painting.  He  visited  Paris  in 
1828,  canvassing  for  subscribers,  and  experienced  an  admira- 
tion from  illustrious  men  parallel  with  that  which  had  greeted 
him  in  England.  But  he  does  not  appear  to  have  appreciated 
the  money  value  of  this  admiration  as  highly  as  what  he  found 
in  England,  for  he  wrote  :  "  France  is  poor,  indeed  !  This  day 
I  have  attended  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  and  had  my 
plates  examined  by  about  one  hundred  persons.  *  Fine,  very 
fine,'  issued  from  many  mouths;  but  they  said,  also,  'What  a 
work !  what  a  price !  who  can  pay  it  ? '  I  recollected  that  I 
had  thirty  subscribers  at  Manchester,  and  mentioned  it.  They 
stared  and  seemed  surprised  ;  but  acknowledged  that  England, 
the  little  island  of  England,  alone  was  able  to  support  poor 
Audubon.  .  .  .  Now  it  is  that  I  plainly  see  how  happy,  or 
lucky,  it  was  in  me  not  to  have  come  to  France  first ;  for  if  I 
had,  my  work  now  would  not  have  had  even  a  beginning.  It 
would  have  perished  like  a  flower  in  October ;  and  I  should 
have  returned  to  my  woods,  without  the  hope  of  leaving  be- 
hind that  eternal  fame  which  my  ambition,  industry,  and  per- 
severance long  to  enjoy."  Baron  Cuvier  was  requested  by  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  to  make  a  verbal  report  on  Audubon's 
Birds,  and  he  responded,  describing  the  work  "  as  the  most 
magnificent  monument  which  has  yet  been  erected  to  ornithol- 
ogy." The  author,  having  returned  to  his  own  country  after 
his  schooling  in  France,  "  thought  he  could  not  make  a  better 
use  of  his  talents  than  by  representing  the  most  brilliant  pro- 
ductions of  that  hemisphere.  The  accurate  observation  neces- 
sary for  such  representation  as  he  wished  to  make  soon  ren- 
dered him  a  naturalist.  .  .  .  Formerly  the  European  natural- 
ists were  obliged  to  make  known  to  America  the  riches  she 
possessed;  but  now  Mitchell,  Harlan,  and  Bonaparte  give 
back  with  interest  to  Europe  what  America  had  received. 
Wilson's  history  of  the  Birds  of  the  United  States  equals  in 
elegance  our  most  beautiful  works  on  ornithology.  If  that  of 
Mr.  Audubon  should  be  completed,  we  shall  be  obliged  to 
acknowledge  that  America,  in  magnificence  of  execution,  has 
surpassed  the  Old  World." 

After  spending  the  winter  in  London,  Audubon  returned 
to  the  United  States  in  April,  1829,  and  made  his  way  to  his 
home  in  Louisiana,  which  he  reached  in  November,  his  journey 
having  been  interrupted  by  excursions  in  quest  of  birds  to 


X62  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Little  Egg  Harbor,  New  Jersey,  and  the  "  Great  Pine  Swamp  " 
in  Northumberland  County,  Pennsylvania.  His  book,  in  the 
meantime,  was  going  steadily  on,  and  the  first  volume  was 
published  in  London  in  1830.  It  contained  one  hundred  plates, 
representing  ninety-nine  species  of  birds,  with  every  figure  of 
the  colour  and  size  of  life.  The  whole  work  was  completed 
in  four  volumes,  in  1839.  It  contained  four  hundred  and 
thirty-five  plates,  representing  one  thousand  and  sixty-five 
distinct  specimens  of  birds — all,  from  the  eagle  to  the  hum- 
ming-bird, of  the  size  of  life.  Again,  after  three  months  at 
home,  spent  in  hunting  and  drawing,  he  visited  England  in 
1830,  where  he  found  that  he  had  been  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
Royal  Society  of  London,  and  on  the  6th  of  May  took  his  seat 
in  the  great  hall,  and  paid  his  entrance  fee  of  fifty  pounds, 
"  though  I  felt  myself  that  I  had  not  the  qualifications  to  en- 
title me  to  such  an  honour."  He  was  shortly  afterward  joined 
by  his  wife,  who  accompanied  him  in  his  journeys  to  get  new 
subscribers.  In  1831,  anticipating  another  tour  of  observation 
and  study  in  the  South,  he  visited  Washington,  to  get  letters 
of  introduction  to  the  commanders  of  frontier  posts  and  offi- 
cers along  his  route.  All  received  him  in  the  kindest  manner. 
The  winter  of  i83i-*32  was  spent  in  East  Florida,  in  what  Au- 
dubon  called  a  rather  unprofitable  expedition,  but  which  fur- 
nished the  material  for  several  striking  "  episodes,"  as  his  ac- 
counts of  the  events  have  been  designated. 

In  his  subsequent  journey  Audubon  visited  the  coast  of 
Maine,  accompanied  by  his  family.  According  to  Dr.  Gris- 
wold's  account,*  although  no  reference  to  the  circumstance  is 
made  in  Mrs.  Audubon's  Life,  the  cholera  then  prevailing  in 
the  country,  he  was  taken  sick  in  Boston  and  detained  there 
for  some  time.  Aside  from  his  illness,  his  experience  in  Bos- 
ton must  have  been  of  the  most  grateful  character,  for  he 
wrote  of  it,  "Although  I  have  been  happy  in  forming  many 
valuable  friendships  in  various  parts  of  the  world,  all  dearly 
cherished  by  me,  the  outpouring  of  kindness  which  I  experi- 
enced in  Boston  far  exceeded  all  that  I  have  ever  met  with." 
With  these  kindnesses  he  associated  the  names  of  the  men 
who  lent  to  the  Boston  of  that  time  its  peculiar  lustre.  Con- 
tinuing his  journey,  he  explored  the  forests  of  Maine  and  New 

*  Prose  Writers  of  America,  p.  189. 


JOHN  JAMES  AUDUBON.  ^3 

Brunswick  and  the  shores  of  the  Bay  of  Funday,  and  then 
went  by  schooner  to  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  the  Magdalen 
Islands,  and  the  coast  of  Labrador ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  season  visited  Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia.  In  the  en- 
suing spring,  after  nearly  three  years  of  travel  and  research, 
he  went  for  the  third  time  to  England,  where,  and  in  Edin- 
burgh, he  lived  a  year  and  a  half.  As  soon  as  the  first  volume 
of  the  Birds  was  published,  Audubon  began  his  Ornithological 
Biographies,  to  accompany  it ;  a  work  which,  besides  descrip- 
tions of  the  birds,  contained  reminiscences  of  personal  adven- 
ture, with  delineations  of  scenery  and  character.  It  was  com- 
pleted in  five  volumes  (i83i-'39).  It  has  a  literary  and  his- 
torical value  apart  from  that  which  the  accounts  of  the  birds 
give  it,  in  that  it  presents  in  language  warm  from  his  having 
been  a  part  of  the  scenes,  a  virgin  past  of  our  country,  and  its 
forests  and  prairies,  which  can  never  be  restored  or  so  well  de- 
scribed again.  In  the  scientific  part  of  this  work  he  had  the 
valuable  co-operation  of  Mr.  William  McGillivray,  of  Edin- 
burgh. Having  spent  the  winter  of  i836-'37  at  Charleston, 
with  excursions  to  the  Sea  Islands,  Savannah,  and  Florida,  Au- 
dubon, in  the  spring  of  1837,  sailed  in  a  revenue  cutter  for 
explorations  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  of  which  he  has  left 
sketches  of  scenes  in  the  Louisiana  bayous,  and  in  Texas.  In 
1838  he  returned  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  spent  several  months 
in  preparing  the  fourth  and  fifth  volumes  of  the  Ornithologi- 
cal Biographies  and  in  finishing  the  drawings  for  the  Birds. 

In  1839  Audubon  came  back  to  the  United  States  for 
the  last  time,  bought  an  estate  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
River,  which  he  called  Minniesland — now  Audubon  Park,  in 
the  city  of  New  York — and  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  an 
edition  of  the  Birds  in  volumes  of  a  reduced  size.  In  this  edi- 
tion the  matter  was  classified,  a  feature  which  had  not  been 
found  practicable  in  the  method  of  publication  of  the  original 
edition.  He  had  also  had  in  hand  for  some  time  a  book  on 
the  Quadrupeds  of  America,  for  which  he,  his  sons,  Victor 
Gilford  and  John  Woodhouse  Audubon,  and  the  father-in-law 
of  his  sons,  the  Rev.  John  Bachman,  of  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  had  gathered  much  material.  Mr.  Bachman  took 
the  same  relation  to  this  book  that  Mr.  McGillivray  had  taken 
to  the  Ornithological  Biographies.  A  trip  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains  had  been  planned  in  connection  with  this  work,  but 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

on  account  of  his  age  Audubon  was  induced  to  give  it  up, 
after  having  gone  as  far  as  the  Yellowstone  River.  The  first 
volume  of  the  Quadrupeds,  which  was  largely  the  work  of  his 
collaborators,  was  published  in  1846,  and  the  last  volume  in 
1854,  after  Audubon's  death.  During  the  last  four  years  of 
his  life,  Audubon  became  weak  in  mind,  and  not  able  to  do  any 
regular  work.  "  The  interval  of  about  three  years,"  says  Mrs. 
Audubon,  "  which  passed  between  the  time  of  Audubon's  return 
from  the  West  and  the  period  when  his  mind  began  to  fail, 
was  a  short  and  sweet  twilight  to  his  adventurous  career. 
His  habits  were  simple.  Rising  almost  with  the  sun,  he  pro- 
ceeded to  the  woods  to  view  his  feathered  favourites  till  the 
hour  at  which  the  family  usually  breakfasted,  except  when  he 
had  drawing  to  do,  when  he  sat  closely  to  his  work.  After 
breakfast  he  drew  till  noon,  and  then  took  a  long  walk.  At 
nine  in  the  evening  he  generally  retired.  .  .  .  He  was  very 
fond  of  his  grandchildren,  and  used  often  to  take  them  on  his 
knees  and  sing  to  them  amusing  French  songs  that  he  had 
learned  in  France  when  he  was  a  boy.  .  .  .  After  1848  the 
naturalist's  mind  entirely  failed  him,  and  during  the  last  years 
of  his  life  his  eye  lost  its  brightness,  and  he  had  to  be  led  to 
his  daily  walks  by  the  hand  of  a  servant." 

The  body  of  Audubon  was  placed  in  a  vault  in  Trinity 
Cemetery,  which  adjoins  Audubon  Park  on  the  south  side.  In 
1885  Prof.  Thomas  Egleston,  finding  the  vault  much  out  of 
repair,  undertook  to  have  it  put  in  better  order.  He  induced 
the  corporation  of  Trinity  Church  to  remove  it  to  a  more 
prominent  site,  and  interested  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences in  raising  a  subscription  for  a  monument.  The  project 
was  successful,  and  on  April  26,  1893,  the  monument  was  un- 
veiled. It  consists  of  a  Runic  cross  of  blue  stone  eighteen 
feet  in  height,  standing  upon  a  blue-stone  die,  which  rests 
upon  a  granite  base.  The  total  height  is  twenty-five  feet. 
There  is  a  fine  bas-relief  bust  of  Audubon  on  one  side  of  the 
die  and  an  inscription  fills  the  other.  The  cross  is  ornamented 
with  carvings  of  birds  and  quadrupeds  described  in  his  works. 

Various  estimates  of  Audubon's  character  and  work,  and 
accounts  of  his  appearance  have  been  given  us,  all  to  his 
praise.  Dr.  Griswold  says,  in  his  Prose  Writers  of  America, 
that  his  highest  claim  to  admiration  "is  founded  upon  his 
drawings  in  natural  history,  in  which  he  has  exhibited  a  per- 


JOHN   JAMES   AUDUBON.  165 

faction  never  before  attempted.  In  all  our  climates — in  the 
clear  atmosphere,  by  the  dashing  waters,  amid  the  grand  old 
forests,  with  their  peculiar  and  many-tinted  foliage,  by  him 
first  made  known  to  art — he  has  represented  our  feathered 
tribes,  building  their  nests  and  fostering  their  young;  poised 
on  the  tip  of  the  spray  and  hovering  over  the  sedgy  margin  of 
the  lake;  flying  in  the  clouds  in  quest  of  prey,  or  from  pur- 
suit; in  love,  enraged,  indeed,  in  all  the  varieties  of  their  mo- 
tion and  repose,  and  modes  of  life  so  perfectly,  that  all  other 
works  of  the  kind  are  to  his  as  stuffed  skins  to  the  living 
birds.  But  he  has  also  indisputable  claims  to  a  respectable 
rank  as  a  man  of  letters.  Some  of  his  written  pictures  of 
birds,  so  graceful,  clearly  denned,  and  brilliantly  coloured,  are 
scarcely  inferior  to  the  productions  of  his  pencil.  .  .  .  From 
the  beginning  he  surrendered  himself  entirely  to  his  favour- 
ite pursuit,  and  has  been  intent  to  learn  everything  from  the 
prime  teacher  Nature.  His  style  as  well  as  his  knowledge  is 
a  fruit  of  his  experience."  His  personal  appearance,  as  a  ref- 
erence to  his  portrait  will  show  must  have  been  the  case,  was 
calculated  to  impress  a  visitor.  He  is  described  as  having 
been  tall  and  commanding  in  person,  with  a  countenance 
which,  from  the  sharp  glance  of  his  eye  and  the  outline  of  his 
features,  "suggested  a  resemblance  to  the  eagle."  He  is  be- 
lieved, from  his  own  account,  to  have  been  somewhat  of  a 
dandy  while  living  at  Mill  Grove.  "  It  was  one  of  my  fancies," 
he  says,  "to  be  ridiculously  fond  of  dress;  to  hunt  in  black 
satin  breeches,  wear  pumps  when  shooting,  and  dress  in  the 
finest  ruffled  shirts  I  could  obtain  from  France."  When  on 
his  hunting  tours,  as  he  records  in  the  relation  of  a  visit  to 
Niagara,  he  would  allow  himself  to  get  into  the  plight  of  the 
poorer  class  of  Indians,  and  worse,  from  not  having,  like  them, 
plucked  his  beard  or  trimmed  his  hair  in  any  way.  "  Had 
Hogarth  been  living,  and  there,  when  I  arrived,  he  could  not 
have  found  a  fitter  subject  for  a  Robinson  Crusoe.  My  beard 
covered  my  neck  in  front,  my  hair  fell  much  lower  at  my  back ; 
the  leather  dress  which  I  wore  had  for  months  stood  in  need 
of  repair;  a  large  knife  hung  at  my  side;  a  rusty  tin  box,  con- 
taining my  drawings  and  colours,  and  wrapped  up  in  a  worn- 
out  blanket  that  had  served  me  for  a  bed,  was  buckled  to  my 
shoulders.  To  every  one  I  must  bave  seemed  immersed  in 
the  depths  of  poverty,  perhaps  of  despair."  Some  explanation 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

was  needed  to  convince  the  landlord  of  the  hotel  that  he  was 
a  suitable  subject  for  entertainment,  but  it  seems  to  have  been 
satisfactory.  Christopher  North  says  of  him  in  the  Noctes 
Ambrosianae,  as  he  appeared  at  Edinburgh  :  "  The  man  himself 
is  just  what  you  would  expect  from  his  productions ;  full  of 
fine  enthusiasm  and  intelligence,  most  interesting  in  his  looks 
and  manners,  a  perfect  gentleman,  and  esteemed  by  all  who 
know  him  for  the  simplicity  and  frankness  of  his  nature." 

In  an  address  delivered  on  the  unveiling  of  the  monument 
to  Audubon,  Prof.  Thomas  Egleston  has  said  of  him :  "  He  was 
a  woodsman,  not  a  scientific  naturalist,  according  to  the  ideas 
prevalent  to-day.  He  loved  to  go  into  the  forests  and  watch 
the  creatures  that  dwelt  among  the  leafy  lanes  and  thickets ; 
to  study  the  birds  in  their  time  of  love-making,  nesting,  and 
migration,  and  to  draw  their  forms  upon  the  canvas.  But  of 
books  he  was  no  student ;  of  the  intricate  scientific  details  of 
his  mighty  subject  he  was  unconcerned  and  indifferent ;  suffi- 
cient for  him  it  was  to  learn  where  and  how  his  feathered 
friends  lived  and  moved,  and  to  produce  their  portraits." 


LEWIS    DAVID   VON   SCHWEINITZ. 


LEWIS   DAVID   VON   SCHWEINITZ. 

1780-1834. 

DURING  colonial  times  in  America,  and  even  down  into  the 
present  century,  science  advanced  over  a  much-obstructed 
path.  Not  having  then  attained  to  its  present  power  and  es- 
teem, there  were  but  few  of  its  votaries  whose  whole  time  and 
best  energies  it  could  command.  The  explorations  by  which 
the  animals,  plants,  and  minerals  of  the  vast  Western  continent 
were  made  known  to  science  were  accomplished  in  large  part 
by  naturalists  who  either  followed  some  other  vocation  as  a 
means  of  livelihood,  or  were  mainly  occupied  by  some  other 
career  to  which  they  felt  more  strongly  bound.  Franklin  was 
a  printer  and  later  a  statesman,  being  an  electrician  only  at  odd 
times ;  John  Bartram  was  a  farmer ;  Mitchill,  Hosack,  and 
Barton  were  physicians ;  while  Muhlenberg  and  the  subject  of 
this  article  were  clergymen. 

Lewis  David  von  Schweinitz  was  born,  February  13,  1780, 
at  Bethlehem,  Pa.,  then  a  Moravian  Church  settlement  which 
had  been  founded  by  his  family  in  1741.  His  father,  Baron 
Hans  Christian  Alexander  von  Schweinitz,  came  from  an  an- 
cient and  distinguished  family  residing  on  the  ancestral  estate 
called  Leuba  in  the  present  limits  of  Saxony.  That  he  was  a 
man  of  stable  character  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  he 
performed  the  responsible  duties  of  a  treasurer  general  for  the 
Moravian  Church  in  America.  The  mother  of  Lewis  was  Dor- 
othea Elizabeth,  daughter  of  Baron  (afterward  Bishop)  John 
de  Watteville,  and  Benigna,  daughter  of  Lewis  Nicholas, 
Count  Zinzendorf.  It  was  to  Zinzendorf  and  Watteville  that 
the  renewal  and  resuscitation  of  the  ancient  church  of  the 
Unitas  Fratrum,  or  Moravian  Brethren,  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury was  mainly  due.  In  1722  two  families  of  the  Brethren 
crossed  the  frontier  of  Moravia  by  night  and  made  their  way 
to  the  estate  of  Count  Zinzendorf  in  Saxony.  Here  they  were 

167 


l68  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

joined  by  others,  and  in  a  few  years  the  town  of  Herrnhut  was 
built  by  the  colonists.  Zinzendorf  took  an  interest  in  this  set- 
tlement from  the  start,  became  a  bishop  in  the  church,  and  de- 
voted his  life  to  its  service.  The  efforts  of  the  Brethren  were 
early  turned  toward  foreign  missions,  and  it  was  in  furtherance 
of  mission  work  that  Zinzendorf  and  Watteville  came  to 
America  and  founded  the  first  Moravian  settlements  in  this 
country. 

Being  so  closely  connected  with  the  refounders  of  an  an- 
cient denomination,  the  parents  of  Lewis  naturally  looked  for- 
ward to  his  becoming  an  able  promoter  of  the  interests  of  their 
church.  He  was  their  eldest  son,  of  a  decidedly  intellectual 
temperament  and  an  enthusiastic  disposition,  and  when  in  early 
boyhood  he  developed  the  habit  of  addressing  short  speeches 
and  little  sermons  to  the  family  circle,  his  future  seemed  to  be 
definitely  marked  out. 

When  a  little  more  than  seven  years  old,  Lewis  was  placed 
in  the  academy  of  the  Moravian  community  at  Nazareth  Hall, 
where  he  remained  eleven  years.  Young  Lewis  received  his 
first  impulse  toward  scientific  study  when  on  a  visit  to  this 
school  with  his  grandfather,  Bishop  de  Watteville,  before  he 
entered  it  as  a  pupil.  Seeing  a  specimen  of  the  Lichen  digitatus 
lying  on  a  table,  the  child  examined  it  with  interest,  and  was 
told  its  name  and  something  about  its  physiology.  From  that 
moment  he  was  wont  to  date  his  interest  in  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  After  entering  the  school  he  received  some  instruc- 
tion in  the  elements  of  botany.  A  partial  flora  of  Nazareth 
and  vicinity,  made  while  he  was  at  this  institution,  which  re- 
mained among  his  manuscripts  at  his  death,  is  evidence  that 
this  study  took  immediate  hold  upon  the  mind  of  the  youth. 
During  his  school  days  his  powers  of  language  and  his  vein  of 
satirical  humour  were  occasionally  manifested  in  poetical  effu- 
sions. While  still  a  pupil  and  not  yet  eighteen  years  of  age 
he  assisted  in  teaching  some  of  the  younger  classes.  Lewis 
had  three  brothers  and  two  sisters,  none  of  whom  ever  turned 
to  scientific  pursuits. 

In  1798  Hans  von  Schweinitz  was  called  to  Germany  and 
took  his  family  with  him.  Lewis  was  removed  from  the  Naza- 
reth seminary  and  after  the  family  reached  Germany  was  en- 
tered as  a  student  in  the  theological  institution  at  Niesky,  in 
what  was  then  known  as  the  province  of  Lusatia,  in  Silesia. 


LEWIS   DAVID  VON   SCHWEINITZ. 


169 


Here  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Prof.  J.  B.  de  Albertini,  who 
became  his  fast  friend  and  his  fellow-worker  in  botanical  in- 
vestigations. After  completing  his  course  as  a  student  he 
became  a  teacher  in  the  academy.  His  leisure  at  Niesky  was 
occupied  in  the  pursuit  of  his  favourite  science,  in  general  read- 
ing and  study,  and  in  writing  for  the  literary  journals  of  the 
time.  In  his  Memoir  of  von  Schweinitz,  read  before  the  Acad- 
emy of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  Walter  R.  Johnson 
says  of  his  literary  activity  at  this  time,  "  Scarcely  any  im- 
portant topic  in  the  wide  field  of  science  escaped  his  notice, 
and  especially  did  the  constitution  and  management  of  the 
affairs  of  his  social  and  religious  fraternity  call  forth  from  his 
pen  many  able  and  spirited  articles." 

The  first  published  botanical  work  of  von  Schweinitz  ap- 
peared in  1805,  when  he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age.  From 
the  beginning  of  his  residence  at  Niesky  he  had  given  especial 
attention  to  the  fungi,  previously  little  studied.  The  associa- 
tion with  Albertini  had  continued  and  the  discoveries  of  the 
two  friends  in  this  field  had  been  so  many  as  to  warrant  the 
publication  of  a  volume  of  about  four  hundred  pages  on  the 
fungi  of  Lusatia  embodying  the  results  of  their  united  efforts. 
It  was  written  in  Latin,  as  was  still  the  custom  for  scientific 
works  in  Europe,  and  the  twelve  plates,  containing  figures  of 
ninety-three  new  species,  with  which  it  was  illustrated,  were 
drawn  and  engraved  by  von  Schweinitz's  own  hands.  In  this 
work  the  authors  creditably  refrained  from  the  then  too  com- 
mon practice  of  giving  new  names  to  the  already  known  plants 
included  in  their  descriptions.  They  were  convinced  that  nat- 
ural history  had  been  grievously  burdened  by  the  accumulation 
and  confusion  of  synonyms,  many  of  which  promoted  no  other 
purpose  than  an  unworthy  ambition. 

Soon  after  this  Mr.  von  Schweinitz  began  to  preach,  and  in 
1807  was  called  to  the  Moravian  settlement  at  Gnadenberg, 
not  far  from  Niesky.  "  Considered  as  literary  performances," 
says  Johnson,  in  the  memoir  already  cited,  "  his  sermons  were 
characterized  by  the  utmost  simplicity,  both  in  style  and  de- 
livery, and  were  addressed  more  to  the  heart  than  to  the  head. 
His  discourses  were  invariably  practical,  not  argumentative — 
experimental,  not  speculative."  It  was  now  the  time  of  Na- 
poleon's continental  wars,  and  troops  were  quartered  at  Gna- 
denburg.  The  inhabitants  found  the  presence  of  the  soldiery 

12 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

irksome,  but  the  happy  disposition  and  winning  deportment  of 
the  young  pastor  had  much  influence  in  preventing  collisions. 
The  next  year  he  was  invited  to  Gnadau,  in  Saxony,  where  he 
remained  four  years,  performing  the  duties  of  his  clerical  office 
and  teaching  the  boys  of  the  community  who  were  destined  for 
learned  professions. 

In  1812  Mr.  von  Schweinitz,  being  then  thirty-two  years  of 
age,  was  appointed  general  agent  of  the  Moravian  Church  in 
the  southern  United  States.  Before  starting  for  this  country 
he  married,  at  Niesky,  Louiza  Amelia  Le  Doux,  who  belonged 
to  a  French  family  residing  at  Stettin.  The  continental  sys- 
tem of  Napoleon  rendering  direct  communication  with  the 
United  States  extremely  hazardous,  Mr.  von  Schweinitz  and 
his  wife  were  compelled  to  go  through  Denmark  to  Sweden 
and  embark  there.  The  trouble  of  making  this  roundabout 
journey  was,  as  it  chanced,  not  without  its  compensation.  The 
travellers  were  obliged  to  make  a  stay  of  some  length  at  Kiel, 
in  Holstein,  during  which  von  Schweinitz  formed  an  enjoyable 
acquaintance  with  several  of  the  professors  in  the  university 
there.  His  attainments,  moreover,  so  impressed  the  authori- 
ties of  this  seat  of  learning  that  they  conferred  upon  him  the 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  When,  at  length, 
the  voyage  was  begun  the  United  States  had  declared  war 
with  England  and  the  sea  swarmed  with  privateers.  The  pas- 
sage abounded  with  thrilling  adventures  and  providential 
escapes.  While  still  in  European  waters  the  vessel  fell  in  with 
a  French  privateer  and  narrowly  avoided  capture  by  taking 
refuge  under  the  guns  of  a  Danish  fort.  A  fierce  cannonade 
between  the  Danes  and  the  Frenchman  followed,  many  of  the 
balls  passing  over  and  through  the  ship.  Later  it  was  actually 
captured  by  a  British  frigate,  but  escaped  in  the  darkness  and 
fog  of  a  stormy  night.  Much  tempestuous  weather  was  met 
with,  and  the  climax  came  in  a  terrible  storm  which  dismasted 
the  vessel.  Nevertheless,  it  finally  entered  port  in  safety,  being 
the  only  one  of  fifteen  or  twenty  American  vessels  sailing  from 
Sweden  on  the  same  day  that  ever  reached  America. 

The  principal  church  settlement  of  the  district  to  which 
von  Schweinitz  had  been  assigned  was  at  Salem,  N.  C.,  and 
there  he  took  up  his  residence.  Although  not  a  native  of 
North  Carolina,  he  had  a  strong  predilection  for  that  State, 
having  often  heard  his  father  and  grandfather  speak  of  their 


LEWIS   DAVID  VON   SCHWEINITZ. 


I/I 


visits  to  its  early  settlements.  His  official  duties  were  very 
arduous.  He  was  a  member  of  the  governing  board  of  the 
Moravian  Churches  in  North  Carolina,  a  trustee  of  the  Salem 
Female  Academy,  the  administrator  of  the  very  large  landed 
estates  owned  by  the  church  in  the  State,  and  he  frequently 
preached  in  Salem  and  other  places.  Yet  he  found  time  to 
continue  his  botanical  researches,  which  he  could  now  carry  on 
in  a  dominion,  scientifically  speaking,  all  his  own.  On  one  of 
his  exploring  trips  he  discovered  among  the  Sauraton  Moun- 
tains, in  Stokes  County,  a  most  beautiful  waterfall,  which  still 
bears  his  name.  Among  his  scientific  correspondents  at  this 
time  were  Dr.  Reichenbach,  of  Dresden  ;  Kunze,  of  Leipsic ; 
Major  Le  Conte,  United  States  Army ;  Blumenbach,  of  Got- 
tingen ;  Elliott,  of  South  Carolina ;  Schwaegrichen,  of  Leip- 
sic; and  Hooker,  of  England.  The  first  fruit  of  his  botanical 
work  in  the  South  was  a  synopsis  of  the  fungi  of  North  Caro- 
lina, written  in  Latin,  which  was  given  to  the  world  in  1818 
through  the  Society  of  Naturalists  at  Leipsic,  under  the  edi- 
torial care  of  Dr.  D.  F.  Schwaegrichen.  Among  the  thirteen 
hundred  and  seventy-three  species  described  in  this  synopsis, 
there  are  three  hundred  and  fifteen  that  were  new  to  science. 
In  the  same  year  his  duties  required  him  to  attend  a  synod 
of  his  religious  brethren  at  Herrnhut.  On  his  way  he  visited 
England,  France,  and  Holland,  and  established  correspond- 
ences which  were  of  great  value  to  him  after  he  returned  to 
America  and  began  the  formation  of  a  regular  herbarium.  In 
1821  von  Schweinitz  published  at  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  a  pamphlet 
containing  descriptions  of  seventy  six  species  of  Hepaticce  (liv- 
erworts), among  them  being  nine  discovered  by  him.  In  the 
same  year  he  contributed  to  the  American  Journal  of  Science, 
then  in  its  fifth  volume,  a  Monograph  on  the  Genus  Viola,  in 
which  five  new  species  were  described.  This  was  a  valuable 
paper,  and  was  often  cited  by  European  botanists.  In  it  he 
made  the  interesting  statement  that  among  the  thirty  species 
of  violets  then  known  in  America  there  was  not  one  exactly 
like  any  of  the  twenty  European  species. 

During  his  residence  at  Salem,  von  Schweinitz  had  been 
offered  the  presidency  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 
The  acceptance  of  this  honourable  position  would  have  neces- 
sitated giving  up  his  service  in  the  Moravian  Church,  and  so, 
feeling  that  the  Brethren  had  the  best  claim  upon  his  energies, 


172  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

he  declined  it.  At  the  beginning  of  the  year  1822  he  removed 
to  Pennsylvania,  and  took  up  his  residence  in  his  native  village 
of  Bethlehem.  Here  he  undertook  the  charge  of  the  Mora- 
vian girls'  seminary  at  that  place,  and  the  secular  office  of  gen- 
eral agent  for  the  Brethren  was  retained.  His  botanical  studies 
were  not  suffered  to  languish.  "  The  beautiful  slopes  and  val- 
leys about  Bethlehem  and  Nazareth,"  says  Johnson,  "  the  ro- 
mantic banks  of  the  Delaware,  and  the  precipitous  rocks  of  the 
Lehigh,  all  yielded  up  to  him  a  tribute  of  their  hitherto  unex- 
plored treasures.  The  high  estimation  set  upon  his  works  by 
men  of  science  had  procured  his  election  as  an  honorary  mem- 
ber in  several  societies  devoted  to  natural  history,  both  in 
Europe  and  America.  His  correspondence  increased,  and  the 
formation  of  his  herbarium  advanced  with  great  rapidity." 
About  this  time  Major  Long's  expedition  to  the  sources  of  the 
St.  Peter's  River,  in  the  Northwest  Territory,  returned.  It 
had  been  arranged  that  the  plants  collected  on  this  trip  by 
Thomas  Say  should  be  described  by  Nuttall.  The  work  was 
begun  by  this  naturalist,  but  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Europe, 
and  was  prevented  from  returning  in  season  to  do  any  more. 
The  plants  were  accordingly  put  in  the  hands  of  von  Schwei- 
nitz,  who  described  them  most  acceptably. 

Toward  the  end  of  1823  the  then  well-known  botanist  com- 
municated to  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  (now  the  Acad- 
emy of  Natural  Sciences),  of  New  York,  a  key  or  analytical 
table  for  determining  the  American  species  of  Carex — the 
largest  genus  of  the  sedges.  This  production,  though  small  in 
bulk,  could  result  only  from  ample  knowledge  and  exact  dis- 
crimination. In  1824  the  American  Journal  of  Science  pub- 
lished a  short  paper  by  him  on  the  rarer  plants  of  Easton,  Pa. 
There  was  another  synod  at  Herrnhut  this  year  which  it  was 
necessary  for  him  to  attend,  and,  having  a  Monograph  of  the 
North  American  Carices  about  completed,  he  put  the  manu- 
script, together  with  a  large  collection  of  specimens,  into  the 
hands  of  Dr.  Torrey,  in  order  that  the  monograph  might  be 
communicated  to  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  in  his  ab- 
sence. He  gave  full  liberty  for  making  any  additions  or  alter- 
ations warranted  by  Dr.  Torrey's  later  discoveries.  When  he 
found,  on  returning,  that  his  editor  had  made  important  addi- 
tions to  the  number  of  species  described,  von  Schweinitz,  with 
characteristic  conscientiousness,  requested  that  the  paper 


LEWIS   DAVID   VON   SCHWEINITZ. 


173 


should  be  published  as  their  joint  production,  saying  that  "the 
judicious  and  elaborate  amendments  he  has  proposed,  and  the 
mass  of  new  and  valuable  matter  he  has  added,  entitle  Dr. 
Torrey  to  a  participation  in  the  authorship  of  the  work."  The 
whole  number  of  species  described  was  one  hundred  and  thir- 
teen, of  which  six  were  new.  This  and  the  analytical  table  of 
the  Carices  were  both  printed  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Annals 
of  the  Lyceum.  In  his  absence  a  paper  in  which  he  described 
fifteen  new  American  species  of  Sphczriaz,  one  of  the  largest 
genera  of  fungi,  was  communicated  to  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  and  appeared  in  vol.  v  of  its  Journal. 

Von  Schweinitz  was  absent  till  near  the  end  of  1825.  After 
his  return  he  resumed  his  labours  as  general  agent  for  the  Breth- 
ren ;  the  charge  of  the  school,  however,  had  been  given  up 
some  time  before.  The  great  work  to  which  he  now  devoted 
his  attention  was  a  Synopsis  of  North  American  Fungi.  He 
had  intended  this  for  publication  in  one  of  the  European  jour- 
nals, but  was  induced  to  present  it,  in  1831,  to  the  American 
Philosophical  Society  of  Philadelphia.  In  this  work  three 
thousand  and  ninety-eight  species,  belonging  to  two  hundred 
and  forty-six  genera,  were  described,  of  which  twelve  hundred 
and  three  species  and  seven  genera  had  been  discovered  by 
the  author.  If  to  these  discoveries  we  add  those  made  by  von 
Schweinitz  in  other  orders  of  plants,  we  have  a  total  of  nearly 
fourteen  hundred  new  species  added  to  botanic  science  by  the 
talents  and  industry  of  a  single  observer.  The  whole  number 
of  species  known  at  his  death  was  estimated  at  sixty  thousand. 

Until  he  was  about  fifty  years  of  age  his  health  had  been 
excellent.  But  the  various  and  increasing  cares  of  his  official 
position  finally  had  their  effect.  The  sedentary  work  involved 
in  writing  a  dissertation  on  the  affairs  of  his  community,  which 
prevented  for  a  time  his  usual  out-of-door  exercise,  was  the  im- 
mediate cause  of  a  severe  cough  and  other  alarming  symptoms 
of  decline.  His  spirits,  which  had  been  uniformly  cheerful,  be- 
came depressed.  A  journey  to  the  West  to  establish  a  branch 
community  of  the  United  Brethren  in  Indiana  was  temporarily 
beneficial,  but  his  system  was  undermined  and  the  progress  of 
disease  could  not  be  stayed.  On  February  8,  1834,  came  the 
end  of  what  his  memoirist  calls  "  a  life  of  various,  constant, 
and  unobtrusive  usefulness." 

A  widow  and  four  sons  survived  him.     All  the  sons  entered 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  Moravian  ministry.  The  eldest,  Emil  Adolphus  de  Schwei- 
nitz,  was  born  in  Salem,  N.  C,  in  1816.  He  filled  various 
ecclesiastical  offices  in  Pennsylvania  and  North  Carolina,  was 
made  a  bishop  in  1874,  and  died  in  1879.  The  second  son, 
Robert,  was  born  in  Salem,  in  1819.  He  has  filled  various 
charges  and  was  for  many  years  president  of  the  executive 
board  of  the  American  Moravian  Church.  Since  his  retirement 
from  the  active  ministry  he  has  been  general  treasurer  of  the 
Church  and  of  its  Foreign  Mission  Department.  The  third 
son,  Edmund  Alexander,  was  born  in  Bethlehem  in  1825,  and 
died  there  in  1887.  He  also  became  a  bishop,  and  was  the 
author  of  several  books  on  the  history  and  polity  of  the  Unitas 
Fratrum.  In  1856  he  established  a  weekly  journal  for  the 
Moravians  in  America,  which  he  edited  for  ten  years.  His 
life  was  one  of  great  activity  and  usefulness.  Bernard,  the 
youngest  son,  was  born  at  Bethlehem,  in  1828,  and  died  at  the 
age  of  twenty-six  years,  being  at  the  time  in  charge  of  a  church 
on  Staten  Island.  During  the  latter  years  of  the  father's  life 
he  used  de  in  place  of  von  in  his  name,  and  the  sons  have  always 
used  the  new  form. 

Von  Schweinitz  was  of  high  stature,  erect  carriage,  and 
robust  habit.  The  accompanying  portrait  is  a  copy  of  a  mini- 
ature painted  some  years  before  his  death,  and  consequently 
represents  him  in  the  prime  of  life.  He  had  an  unusually 
amiable  and  attractive  disposition,  which  made  him  a  general 
favourite  with  high  and  low.  His  conversational  powers  were 
of  a  high  order,  and  contributed  much  to  an  ease  of  inter- 
course which  was  an  important  factor  of  his  usefulness.  Hu- 
mour, anecdote,  and  repartee  were  always  at  his  command, 
while  the  varied  and  exciting  scenes  through  which  he  had 
passed  and  the  prominent  personages  with  whom  he  had  come 
in  contact  furnished  him  an  inexhaustible  fund  of  interesting 
reminiscences.  Strange  to  say,  considering  his  German  ex- 
traction, he  was  devoid  of  any  appreciation  for  music.  He 
spoke  and  wrote  in  English,  German,  French,  and  Latin,  and 
was  also  acquainted  with  Greek. 

A  notable  feature  of  his  scientific  work  was  its  systematic 
character.  Evidence  of  this  is  furnished  by  the  synoptical 
tables  attached  to  his  several  monographs,  and  by  the  fact  that 
the  analytical  table  of  the  Carices  was  one  of  his  productions. 
The  cryptogams  had  for  him  an  attraction  that  they  do  not 


LEWIS   DAVID   VON    SCHWEINITZ. 


175 


have  for  many.  We  owe  most  of  our  knowledge  of  this  series 
of  plants  to  German,  Danish,  and  Swedish  investigators. 
Knowledge  that  may  not  be  read  by  him  who  runs  but  must 
be  delved  for,  as  is  the  case  with  that  relating  to  the  fungi 
and  their  near  allies,  seems  to  have  an  especial  attraction  for 
Northern  minds. 

Among  his  well-deserved  honours  was  the  naming  after  him 
of  Schweinitzia  odorata  (sweet  pinesap),  by  Stephen  Elliott. 
This  is  a  small  plant,  found  from  Maryland  southward,  and 
bears  a  spike  of  flesh-coloured  flowers  which  exhale  the  odour 
of  violets. 

A  general  characterization  of  the  botanist's  work  can  not 
be  given  better  than  in  the  following  words  of  Walter  R.  John- 
son : 

"  When  we  consider  the  extreme  difficulty  of  the  particular 
departments  of  botany  to  which  Mr.  Schweinitz  devoted  his 
chief  attention,  the  prodigious  number  of  facts  which  he  has 
accumulated,  the  vast  amount  of  minute  and  delicate  investi- 
gation demanded  by  the  nature  of  the  objects  of  his  study,  the 
labour  of  preparing  for  the  press  the  materials  which  he  had 
brought  together ;  when  we  recollect  that,  with  the  exception 
of  Dr.  Muhlenburg,  of  Lancaster,  no  American  botanist  had 
ventured  far  upon  this  wide  and  unexplored  dominion  of  Na- 
ture, and  when  we  remember  that  this  science  was  his  relaxa- 
tion, not  his  profession — his  occasional  pursuit,  not  his  daily 
duty — we  are  forcibly  struck  with  the  high  order  of  his  talents 
for  the  pursuit  of  physical  science,  and  can  not  but  regret  that 
more  of  his  time  and  energies  could  not  have  been  devoted  to 
this  favourite  occupation." 

Von  Schweinitz  bequeathed  his  collection  of  plants  to  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia.  It  comprised 
twenty-three  thousand  species  of  phanerogams  and  many  thou- 
sand cryptogams.  A  large  portion  of  the  specimens  were  from 
the  most  remote  parts  of  the  world,  having  been  obtained  by 
exchange  with  American  and  European  explorers.  They  in- 
cluded the  "  Baldwin  collection  "  from  Florida,  Brazil,  and  La 
Plata,  which  von  Schweinitz  had  bought,  and  in  which  he  had 
found  three  thousand  species  not  before  in  his  herbarium.  The 
examination  and  .arrangement  of  these  plants  had  been  one  of 
his  last  scientific  labours. 


ROBERT   HARE. 

1781-1858. 

THE  name  of  Robert  Hare,  said  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  at  the  time  of  his  death,  "  has  for  more  than  half  a  cen- 
tury been  familiar  to  men  of  science  as  a  chemical  philosopher, 
and  to  the  cultivators  of  the  useful  arts  throughout  the  civi- 
lized world."  Dr.  Hare  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  January  17, 
1781,  and  died  in  the  same  place,  May  15,  1858.  His  father, 
the  proprietor  of  a  large  brewery  in  Philadelphia,  was  an  Eng- 
lishman of  strong  mind,  occupying  a  prominent  position  in  so- 
ciety, and  enjoying  the  confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens.  The 
management  of  this  concern  shortly  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  son. 
He  was  soon  drawn  away  from  it,  however,  by  the  strength 
of  his  predilection  for  scientific  pursuits ;  and  before  he  was 
twenty  years  old  he  was  enrolled  as  an  attendant  of  the  course 
of  lectures  on  chemistry  and  physics  in  Philadelphia,  and  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Chemical  Society  of  that  city.  There 
he  found  Priestley,  Sybert,  and  Woodhouse  among  his  associ- 
ates. To  this  society  he  communicated  in  1801  a  description 
of  the  oxyhydrogen  blowpipe,  which  was  then  called  the  hy- 
drostatic blowpipe,  and  which  Prof.  Silliman,  who  had  been 
engaged  with  him  in  1802  and  1803  in  a  series  of  experiments 
with  the  instrument,  afterward  called  the  compound  blowpipe. 
On  his  return  from  Philadelphia,  in  1803,  Prof.  Silliman  con- 
structed for  Yale  College  the  first  pneumatic  trough  combin- 
ing Dr.  Hare's  invention ;  an  apparatus  which  was  afterward 
figured  and  described  by  Dr.  Hare  in  his  memoir  on  the  Fu- 
sion of  Strontia  and  the  Volatilization  of  Platinum — a  paper 
which  was  republished  in  London  and  in  the  Annales  de  Chimie. 
This  apparatus,  according  to  Prof.  Silliman,  was  the  earliest  and 
most  remarkable  of  Dr.  Hare's  original  contributions  to  sci- 
ence. It  revealed  to  the  chemical  student  a  source  of  artificial 

176 


ROBERT    HARE. 


ROBERT    HARE.  ^7 

power  far  transcending  anything  he  had  ever  known  before ; 
and  this,  though  the  facts  on  which  it  was  based  were  not  un- 
known. 

Lavoisier  had  directed  a  jet  of  oxygen  on  charcoal  and  had 
burned  the  elements  of  water  together ;  but  even  he,  and  in  the 
face  of  these  experiments,  had  failed  to  comprehend  the  power 
of  this  heating  apparatus,  and  it  was  left  for  the  acumen  of 
Hare  to  demonstrate  it  and  make  it  practically  applicable. 
The  author  of  the  biography  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence says  of  it,  "  In  our  view,  Dr.  Hare's  merit  as  a  scientific 
philosopher  is  more  clearly  established  upon  this  discovery 
than  upon  any  other  of  the  numerous  contributions  he  has 
made  to  science."  Dr.  Hare's  original  experiments  were  re- 
peated in  1802  and  1803  in  the  presence  of  Dr.  Priestley  and 
Messrs.  Silliman,  Woodhouse,  and  others.  In  recognition  of 
the  discovery,  Dr.  Hare  received  the  Rumford  medal  from  the 
American  Academy  of  Science  at  Boston.  An  attempt  was 
afterward  made,  in  1819,  by  Dr.  Clarke,  of  Edinburgh,  to  rob 
him  of  the  credit  of  this  discovery ;  and  though  he  showed 
that  the  oxhydrogen  apparatus  had  been  before  the  public 
several  years,  no  attention  was  paid  to  his  protests.  The 
calcium  and  Drummond  lights  also  furnish  instances  of  most 
important  applications  of  Dr.  Hare's  invention,  in  which 
no  reference  is  made  to  him.  He  himself  led  the  way  to 
these  devices  by  constructing  an  apparatus  on  a  gigantic 
scale,  with  large  vessels  of  wrought  iron,  capable  of  sustain- 
ing the  pressure  of  the  Fairmount  Water  Works,  with  which 
he  was  able  to  fuse  at  one  operation  nearly  two  pounds  of 
platinum,  with  a  resultant  production  of  metal  greatly  pu- 
rified. 

He  devoted  much  labour  and  skill  to  the  construction 
of  new  and  improved  forms  of  the  voltaic  pile;  "and  it 
is  easy  to  show,"  Prof.  Silliman  says,  "  that  owing  to  his 
zeal  and  skill  in  this  department  of  physics  American 
chemists  were  enabled  to  employ  with  distinguished  success 
the  intense  powers  of  extended  series  of  voltaic  couples  long 
in  advance  of  the  general  use  of  similar  contrivances  in 
Europe." 

In  1816  Dr.  Hare  constructed  an  instrument  called  the  calo- 
rimeter, in  which  great  extent  of  surface  was  obtained  by  com- 
bining many  large  plates  of  zinc  and  copper  into  one  series, 


i;8  PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

and  plunging  the  whole  at  once  into  a  tank  of  dilute  acid. 
Great  magnetic  and  heating  effects  were  obtained  with  this  in- 
strument, and  it  was  many  years  before  any  other  voltaic  ap- 
paratus was  constructed'in  which  the  movement  of  so  great  a 
volume  of  heat  was  attained  with  so  low  a  projectile  or  inten- 
sive force.  By  it  large  rods  of  iron  or  platinum  were  ignited 
and  fused  with  splendid  exhibitions,  while  the  intensity  of  the 
current  was  so  low  that  hardly  a  visible  spark  could  be  made 
to  pass  by  it  through  poles  of  carbon.  The  magnetic  effects 
were  afterward  shown  by  Prof.  Henry  to  be  attainable  from  a 
single  cell,  if  combined  with  suitable  conductors.  Instead  of 
Cruikshank's  cumbrous  battery  of  alternating  zinc  and  copper 
plates,  which  Davy  used  in  the  experiments  that  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  the  metallic  bases  of  the  alkalies,  Hare  found 
a  way  of  obtaining  a  corresponding  amount  of  surface  and  its 
resultant  power  with  a  single  roll  of  metal,  and  in  1820  intro- 
duced the  deflagrator,  in  which  any  series,  however  extended, 
could  be  instantaneously  brought  into  action  or  rendered  pas- 
sive at  pleasure.  This  apparatus  consists  of  a  large  sheet  of 
copper  having  several  hundred  square  feet  of  surface  and  a 
similar  one  of  zinc,  separated  by  a  piece  of  felt  or  cloth  satu- 
rated with  acidulated  water,  and  then  rolled  up  in  the  form  of 
a  cylinder.  Faraday  bore  testimony,  in  his  Experimental  Re- 
searches, to  the  merit  of  this  invention  when,  in  1835,  he  ac- 
knowledged that,  having  worked  exhaustively  to  perfect  the 
voltaic  battery,  finding  that  Hare  had  anticipated  him  many 
years  before,  and  had  accomplished  all  that  he  had  attempted, 
he  at  once  adopted  his  instruments,  as  embodying  the  best  re- 
sults then  possible. 

With  one  of  Hare's  deflagrators,  Prof.  Silliman,  in  1823, 
first  demonstrated  the  volatilization  and  fusion  of  carbon,  a 
result  then  considered  so  extraordinary  that  it  was  a  consider- 
able time  before  it  was  fully  credited.  It  was  with  these  bat- 
teries that  the  first  application  of  voltaic  electricity  to  blasting 
under  water  was  made  in  1831  in  experiments  conducted  under 
Dr.  Hare's  direction. 

Dr.  Hare  was  also  distinguished  in  chemistry  as  the  author 
of  a  process  for  denarcotizing  laudanum,  and  of  a  method  for 
detecting  minute  quantities  of  opium  in  solution.  He  was  in- 
terested, too,  in  the  discussions  of  philosophical  chemistry,  as 
was  most  notably  shown  in  the  earnestness  with  which  he  con- 


ROBERT    HARE. 


179 


tested  what  he  conceived  were  the  errors  of  the  salt  radical 
theory. 

He  made  studies  in  meteorology,  and  had  a  theory  of  whirl- 
winds and  storms  founded  on  an  electrical  hypothesis,  which 
he  opposed  to  the  rotary  theory  of  W.  C.  Redfield.  At  the 
second  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  he  explained  his  own  views  on  this  subject, 
while  he  controverted  those  of  Mr.  Redfield.  This  gentleman 
was  present  and  heard  his  remarks,  but  made  no  reply  then. 
He  was  not  a  speaker,  and  did  not  address  the  public  except  in 
writing. 

In  1818  Dr.  Hare  was  chosen  Professor  of  Chemistry  and 
Natural  Philosophy  in  William  and  Mary  College,  and  in  the 
same  year  was  made  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  medical 
department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.  He  held  the 
latter  position  till  1847.  His  teachings  were  marked  by  the 
originality  of  his  experiments  and  the  extent  and  variety 
of  the  apparatus  he  employed.  He  spared  no  labour  or 
expense  in  his  operations,  and,  being  a  handy  mechani- 
cian, he  was  able  to  bestow  much  ingenuity  in  the  con- 
struction of  novel  devices  for  experiment  and  illustration. 
He  accumulated  instruments  and  material  with  astonishing 
profusion.  To  these  he  added  graphic  illustrations  and 
lucid  descriptions  to  make  his  lectures  intelligible  and  inter- 
esting. When  he  resigned  his  professorship,  he  gave  all 
the  apparatus  he  had  accumulated  to  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution. 

He  was  a  man  of  literary  tastes,  fond  of  poetry,  and  himself 
wrote  verses  occasionally.  He  also  sometimes  wrote  articles 
on  the  political  and  financial  questions  of  the  day,  and  con- 
tributed moral  essays  to  The  Portfolio,  under  the  signature  of 
"  Eldred  Grayson." 

In  person  he  had  a  robust  frame,  a  large  head,  and  an  im- 
posing figure  and  presence. 

In  his  family  and  among  his  friends,  according  to  Prof. 
Silliman,  he  was  very  kind,  and  his  feelings  were  generous, 
amiable,  and  genial ;  yet,  in  the  absence  of  mind  occasioned 
by  his  habitual  abstraction,  and  when  absorbed  in  thought,  his 
manner  was  occasionally  abrupt.  With  his  keen  and  active 
mind,  conversation  would  sometimes  seem  to  awaken  him 
from  an  intellectual  reverie.  He  had  great  colloquial  pow- 


l8o  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ers,  but  to  give  them  full  effect  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  be  aroused  by  a  great  and  interesting  subject,  and  the 
effect  was  heightened  by  the  injection  of  antagonism.  He 
would  then  discourse  with  commanding  ability,  and  his 
hearers  were  generally  as  ready  to  listen  as  he  to  speak.  He 
was  a  man  of  unbounded  rectitude,  a  faithful  friend,  and  a 
lover  of  his  country  and  its  best  interests,  without  thought  of 
personal  emolument  or  political  advancement.  He  was  a  volu- 
minous scientific  writer.  For  many  years  his  contributions  to 
the  American  Journal  of  Science  were  more  numerous  than 
those  of  any  other  correspondent.  The  full  list  of  them  in- 
cludes about  one  hundred  and  fifty  articles,  in  forty-eight  vol- 
umes of  that  journal,  the  record  of  the  titles  of  which  occupies 
five  columns  in  the  General  Index  of  the  first  fifty  volumes. 
Besides  notices  of  the  various  substances  he  discovered  or  ex- 
perimented with,  and  descriptions  of  apparatus,  we  find  among 
these  articles  some  that  touch  the  principles  of  chemical  and 
physical  philosophy — as  on  the  nature  of  acids  and  salts ;  con- 
cerning Faraday's  views  on  atoms ;  on  chemical  nomenclature, 

.  a  subject  which  is  also  discussed  in  a  letter  to  Berzelius;  on 
some  inferences  from  the  phenomena  of  the  spark  in  Thomp- 
son's work  on  heat  and  electricity ;  on  the  error  that  electric 

*  machines  must  communicate  with  the  earth;  on  a  new  theory 
of  galvanism ;  on  the  cause  of  heat ;  a  reply  to  Prof.  D.  Olm- 
sted's  views  on  the  materiality  of  heat;  Reply  to  Matter  is 
Heavy,  as  demonstrated  by  W.  Whewell ;  on  meteorological 
topics — storms  of  the  Atlantic  coast;  reviews  of  Redfield's 
theory  of  storms  and  of  Dove's  essay  on  storms ;  an  account 
of  a  storm  or  tornado  in  Rhode  Island,  August,  1838,  "and 
others";  on  Causes  of  Storm,  Tornado,  and  Waterspout; 
among  accounts  of  experiments  and  new  methods — blasting 
rocks  by  galvanic  ignition  ;  apparatus  for  producing  ebullition 
by  cold ;  process  for  fulminating  powder,  consisting  of  cyano- 
gen and  calcium;  mode  of  obtaining  the  specific  gravity  of 
gases;  analysis  of  gaseous  mixtures;  method  of  dividing 
glass  by  friction ;  and  apparatus  for  decomposition  and  re- 
composition  of  water.  He  was  also  author  of  a  Brief  View  of 
the  Policy  and  Resources  of  the  United  States  (1810);  Chem- 
ical Apparatus  and  Manipulations  (1836) ;  Compendium  of  the 
Course  of  Chemical  Instruction  in  the  Medical  Department  of 
the  University  of  Pennsylvania  (1840) ;  Memoir  on  the  Ex- 


ROBERT   HARE.  jgj 

plosiveness  of    Nitre  (1850);    and    Spiritualism    Scientifically 
Demonstrated  (1855). 

He  was  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences  and  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  was 
one  of  the  few  life-members  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
He  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  from  Yale  in  1806 
and  from  Havard  in  1816. 


CONSTANTINE  SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE. 

1783-1840. 

IT  is  now  more  than  seventy  years  since  the  most  learned 
of  our  early  naturalists,  and  the  most  persistent  of  travellers, 
crossed  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  and  stood  on  Indiana  soil.  He 
came  on  foot,  with  a  notebook  in  one  hand  and  a  hickory 
stick  in  the  other,  and  his  capacious  pockets  were  full  of  wild 
flowers,  shells,  and  toads.  He  wore  "a  long,  loose  coat  of 
yellow  nankeen,  stained  yellower  by  the  clay  of  the  roads, 
and  variegated  by  the  juices  of  plants."  In  all  respects  of 
dress,  manners,  and  appearance  he  would  be  described  by  the 
modern  name  of  "tramp."  Nevertheless,  no  more  remarkable 
figure  has  ever  appeared  in  the  annals  of  America  or  in  the 
annals  of  science.  To  the  writer  it  has  always  possessed  a 
peculiar  interest ;  and  so,  for  a  few  moments,  I  wish  to  call  up 
before  you  the  figure  of  Rafinesque,  with  his  yellow  nankeen 
coat,  "  his  sharp,  tanned  face,  and  his  bundle  of  plants,  under 
which  a  peddler  would  groan,"  before  it  recedes  into  oblivion. 

Constantine  Samuel  Rafinesque  was  born  in  Constantinople 
on  the  22d  of  October,  in  the  year  1783.  His  father  was  a 
French  merchant  from  Marseilles,  doing  business  in  Constan- 
tinople, and  his  mother  was  a  German  woman,  born  in  Greece, 
of  the  family  name  of  Schmaltz.  Rafinesque  himself,  son  of  3 
Franco-Turkish  father  and  a  Graeco-German  mother,  was  an 
American.  Before  he  was  a  year  old  his  lifelong  travels  be- 
gan, his  parents  visiting  ports  of  Asia  and  Africa  on  their  way 
to  Marseilles.  As  a  result  of  this  trip  we  have  the  discovery, 
afterward  characteristically  announced  by  him  to  the  world, 
that  "  infants  are  not  subject  to  seasickness."  At  Marseilles 
his  future  career  was  determined  for  him ;  or  in  his  own  lan- 
guage :  "  It  was  among  the  flowers  and  fruits  of  that  delight 
ful  region  that  I  first  began  to  enjoy  life,  and  I  became  a 
botanist.  Afterward  the  first  prize  I  received  in  school  was  a 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE. 


CONSTANTINE    SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  ^3 

book  of  animals,  and  I  became  a  zoologist  and  a  naturalist. 
My  early  voyage  made  me  a  traveller.  Thus,  some  accidents 
or  early  events  have  an  influence  on  our  fate  through  life,  or 
unfold  our  inclinations."* 

Rafinesque  read  books  of  travel,  those  of  Captain  Cook,  Le 
Vaillant,  and  Pallas  especially  ;  and  his  soul  was  fired  with  the 
desire  "  to  be  a  great  traveller  like  them.  .  .  .  And  I  became 
such,"  he  adds  tersely.  At  the  age  of  eleven  he  had  begun  a 
herbarium,  and  had  learned  to  read  the  Latin  in  which  scientific 
books  of  the  last  century  were  written.  "  I  never  was  in  a  reg- 
ular college,"  he  says,  "  nor  lost  my  time  in  the  dead  languages  ; 
but  I  spent  it  in  reading  alone,  and  by  reading  ten  times  more 
than  is  read  in  the  schools.  I  have  undertaken  to  read  the 
Latin  and  Greek,  as  well  as  the  Hebrew,  Sanskrit,  Chinese, 
and  fifty  other  languages,  as  I  felt  the  need  or  inclination  to 
study  them."  At  the  age  of  twelve  he  published  his  first  scien- 
tific paper,  Notes  on  the  Apennines,  as  seen  from  the  back  of 
a  mule  on  a  journey  from  Leghorn  to  Genoa.  Rafinesque  was 
now  old  enough  to  choose  his  calling  in  life.  He  decided  to 
become  a  merchant ;  for,  said  he,  "  commerce  and  travel  are 
linked."  At  this  time  came  the  first  outbreaks  of  the  French 
Revolution,  when  the  peasants  of  Provence  began  to  dream  of 
"  castles  on  fire  and  castles  combustible " ;  so  Rafinesque's 
prudent  father  sent  his  money  out  of  France  and  his  two  sons, 
Constantine  and  Anthony,  to  America. 

In  Philadelphia,  it  is  said,  "  No  one  knew  where  he  came 
from,  no  one  knew  where  he  went  on  his  return."  According 
to  his  own  story,  Constantine  Rafinesque  became  a  merchant's 
clerk,  and  his  spare  time  was  devoted  to  the  study  of 
botany.  He  tried  also  to  study  the  birds ;  but  he  says, 
"  The  first  bird  I  shot  was  a  poor  chickadee,  whose  death 
appeared  a  cruelty,  and  I  never  became  much  of  a  hunter." 
During  his  vacations  Rafinesque  travelled  on  foot  over  parts 
of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  He  visited  President  Jefferson, 
who,  he  tells  us,  asked  him  to  call  again.  In  1805,  receiv- 
ing an  offer  of  business  in  Sicily,  Rafinesque  returned  to 
Europe.  He  spent  ten  years  in  Sicily — the  land,  as  he  sums  it 


*  This  and  most  of  the  other  verbal  quotations  in  this  paper  are  taken 
from  an  Autobiography  of  Rafinesque,  of  which  a  copy  exists  in  the  Library 
of  Congress.  A  few  quotations  have  been  somewhat  abridged. 


!84  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

up,  "  of  fruitful  soil,  delightful  climate,  excellent  productions, 
perfidious  men,  and  deceitful  women."  His  will,  published 
fifty  years  after  his  death,  gives  a  key  to  this  statement.  The 
deceitful  woman  was  his  wife,  Josephine  Vaccaro,  and  the  per- 
fidious man,  the  actor  Giovanni  Pizzalour,  with  whom  she 
ran  away  when  Rafinesque  left  Sicily  to  resume  his  American 
travels. 

It  was  in  Sicily  that  Rafinesque  discovered  the  medicinal 
squill,  which,  aided  by  the  equally  medicinal  paregoric,  was 
once  the  great  specific  for  all  childish  ailments.  He  com- 
menced gathering  this  in  large  quantities  for  shipment  to  Eng- 
land and  Russia.  The  Sicilians  thought  that  he  was  using 
it  as  a  dyestuff;  "and  this,"  said  he,  "I  let  them  believe." 
Nearly  two  hundred  pounds  had  been  shipped  by  him  before 
the  secret  of  the  trade  was  discovered,  since  which  time  the 
Sicilians  have  prosecuted  the  business  on  their  own  account. 
He  began  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  animals  of  the  sea, 
and  here  arose  his  passion  for  ichthyology.  The  red-shirted 
Sicilian  fishermen  used  to  bring  to  him  the  strange  creatures 
which  came  in  their  nets.  In  1810  he  published  two  works 
on  the  fishes  of  Sicily,  and  for  our  knowledge  of  very  many 
of  the  Mediterranean  fishes  we  are  indebted  to  these  Sicilian 
papers  of  Rafinesque.  It  is  unfortunately  true,  however,  that 
very  little  of  real  gain  to  science  has  come  through  this  knowl- 
edge. Rafinesque's  descriptions  in  these  works  are  so  brief, 
so  hasty,  and  so  often  drawn  from  memory,  that  later  natural- 
ists have  been  put  to  great  trouble  in  trying  to  make  them  out. 
A  peculiar,  restless,  impatient  enthusiasm  is  characteristic  of 
all  his  writings — the  ardour  of  the  explorer  without  the  pa- 
tience of  the  investigator.* 

In  Sicily,  Rafinesque  was  visited  by  the  English  ornitholo- 
gist William  Swainson.  Swainson  seems  to  have  been  a  great 
admirer  of  "  the  eccentric  naturalist,"  as  he  called  him.  Of 
him  Rafinesque  says :  "  Swainson  often  went  with  me  to  the 
mountains.  He  carried  a  butterfly  net  to  catch  insects  with, 
and  was  taken  for  a  crazy  man  or  a  wizard.  As  he  hardly 


*  Dr.  Elliott  Coues  has  wittily  suggested  that  as  the  words  "  grotesque," 
"  picturesque,"  and  the  like  are  used  to  designate  literary  styles,  the  adjective 
"  rafinesque  "  may  be  similarly  employed  for  work  like  that  of  the  author  now 
under  consideration. 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  jgij 

spoke  Italian,  I  had  once  to  save  him  from  being  stoned  out 
of  a  field  where  he  was  thought  to  seek  a  treasure  buried  by 
the  Greeks."  Rafinesque  now  invented  a  new  way  of  distill- 
ing brandy.  He  established  a  brandy  distillery,  where,  said 
he,  "  I  made  a  very  good  brandy,  equal  to  any  made  in  Spain, 
without  ever  tasting  a  drop  of  it,  since  I  hate  all  strong  liquors. 
This  prevented  me  from  relishing  this  new  employment,  and 
so  I  gave  it  up  after  a  time." 

Finally,  disgust  with  the  Sicilians  and  fear  of  the  French 
wars  caused  Rafinesque,  who  was,  as  he  says,  "a  peaceful 
man,"  to  look  again  toward  the  United  States.  In  1815  he 
sailed  again  for  America,  with  all  his  worldly  goods,  including 
his  reams  of  unpublished  manuscripts,  his  bushels  of  shells, 
and  a  multitude  of  drawings  of  objects  in  natural  history.  Ac- 
cording to  his  own  account,  the  extent  of  his  collections  at  that 
time  was  enormous,  and  from  the  great  number  of  scattered 
treatises  on  all  manner  of  subjects  which  he  published  in  later 
years,  whenever  he  could  get  them  printed,  it  is  fair  to  sup- 
pose that  his  pile  of  manuscripts  was  equally  great.  A  consid- 
erable number  of  his  notebooks,  and  of  papers  for  which,  for- 
tunately for  scientific  nomenclature,  he  failed  to  find  a  pub- 
lisher, are  now  preserved  in  the  United  States  National  Mu- 
seum. These  manuscripts  are  remarkable  for  two  things — the 
beauty  of  the  quaint  French  penmanship  and  the  badness  of 
the  accompanying  drawings.  His  numerous  notebooks,  writ- 
ten in  French,  represent  each  the  observations  of  a  busy  sum- 
mer ;  and  these  observations,  for  the  most  part  unchecked  by 
the  comparison  of  specimens,  he  prepared  for  the  press  during 
the  winter.  To  this  manner  of  working,  perhaps  unavoidable 
in  his  case,  many  of  Rafinesque's  errors  and  blunders  are  cer- 
tainly due.  In  one  of  these  notebooks  I  find,  among  a  series 
of  notes  in  French,  the  following  remarkable  observation  in 
English :  "  The  girls  at  Fort  Edward  eat  clay !  "  In  another 
place  I  find  a  list  of  the  new  genera  of  fishes  in  Cuvier's  Regne 
Animal  (1817),  which  were  known  to  him.  Many  of  these  are 
designated  as  synonymous  with  genera  proposed  by  Rafinesque 
in  his  Caratteri  in  1810.  With  this  list  is  the  remark  that  these 
genera  of  Cuvier  are  identical  with  such  and  such  genera  "pro- 
posed by  me  in  1810,  but  don't  you  tell  it !  " 

Rafinesque  was  six  months  on  the  ocean  in  the  second 
voyage  to  America.  Finally,  just  as  the  ship  was  entering  Long 
13 


!86  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Island  Sound,  the  pilot  let  her  drift  against  one  of  the  rocks 
which  lie  outside  the  harbour  of  New  London.  The  vessel 
filled  and  sank,  giving  the  passengers  barely  time  to  escape 
with  their  lives.  "  I  reached  New  London  at  midnight,"  says 
Rafinesque,  "  in  a  most  deplorable  situation.  I  had  lost  every- 
thing— my  fortune,  my  share  in  the  cargo,  my  collections  and 
labours  of  twenty  years  past,  my  books,  my  manuscripts,  and 
even  my  clothes — all  I  possessed,  except  some  scattered  funds 
and  some  little  insurance  money.  Some  hearts  of  stone  have 
since  dared  to  doubt  of  these  facts,  or  rejoice  at  my  losses. 
Yes,  I  have  found  men  vile  enough  to  laugh  without  shame  at 
my  misfortunes  instead  of  condoling  with  me.  But  I  have  met 
also  with  friends  who  have  deplored  my  loss  and  helped  me  in 
need."  It  was  after  this  shipwreck  that  his  wife  deserted  him, 
preferring  a  comedian  to  a  madman,  and  taking  with  her  his 
only  daughter,  Emily,  who  became  a  singer  in  a  Sicilian  opera. 

I  shall  pass  rapidly  over  Rafinesque's  career  until  his 
settlement  in  Kentucky.  He  travelled  widely  in  America — in 
the  summer  always  on  foot.  "  Horses  were  offered  me,"  he 
said,  "  but  I  never  liked  riding  them,  and  dismounting  for 
every  flower.  Horses  do  not  suit  botanists."  He  now  came 
westward,  following  the  course  of  the  Ohio,  and  exploring  for 
the  first  time  the  botany  of  the  country.  He  came  to  Indiana, 
and  for  a  short  time  was  associated  with  the  community  then 
lately  established  by  Owen  and  Maclure  at  New  Harmony,  on 
the  Wabash.  Though  the  New  Harmony  experiment  was  a 
failure,  as  all  communities  must  be  in  which  the  drone  and  the 
worker  alike  have  access  to  the  honey  cells,  yet  the  debt  due 
it  from  American  science  is  very  great.  Although  far  in  the 
backwoods,  and  in  the  long-notorious  county  of  Posey,  New 
Harmony  was  for  a  time  fairly  to  be  called  the  centre  of  Amer- 
ican science;  and  even  after  half  a  century  has  gone  by,  its 
rolls  bear  few  names  brighter  than  those  of  Thomas  Say,  David 
Dale  Owen,  and  Charles  Alexander  Lesueur. 

Rafinesque  soon  left  New  Harmony,  and  became  Professor 
of  Natural  History  and  the  Modern  Languages  in  Transylvania 
University  at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  He  was,  I  believe,  the 
first  teacher  of  natural  history  in  the  West,  and  his  experiences 
were  those  of  most  pioneers.  They  would  not  give  him  at 
Lexington  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  he  says,  "  because  I 
had  not  studied  Greek  in  a  college,  although  I  knew  more  Ian- 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  ^ 

guages  than  all  the  American  colleges  united.  But  it  was 
granted  at  last ;  but  that  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  was  not 
granted,  because  I  would  not  superintend  anatomical  dissec- 
tions." He  continues: 

"  Mr.  Holley,  the  president  of  the  university,  despised  and 
hated  the  natural  sciences,  and  wished  to  drive  me  out  alto- 
gether. To  evince  his  hatred  against  science  and  its  discov- 
eries he  had  broken  open  my  rooms  in  my  absence,  given  one 
to  the  students,  and  thrown  all  my  effects,  books,  and  collec- 
tions into  the  other.  He  had  deprived  me  of  my  situation  as 
librarian,  and  tried  to  turn  me  out  of  the  college.  I  took  lodg- 
ings in  town,  and  carried  there  all  my  effects,  leaving  the  col- 
lege with  curses  both  on  it  and  Holley,  which  reached  them 
both  soon  after ;  for  Holley  died  of  yellow  fever  in  New  Or- 
leans, and  the  college  burned  with  all  its  contents." 

In  one  of  his  summer  trips  Rafinesque  became  acquainted 
with  Audubon,  who  was  then  painting  birds  and  keeping  a 
little  "  grocery  store  "  down  the  river,  at  Henderson,  Kentucky. 
Rafinesque  reached  Henderson  in  a  boat,  carrying  on  his  back 
a  bundle  of  plants  which  resembled  dried  clover.  He  acciden- 
tally met  Audubon,  and  asked  him  where  the  naturalist  lived. 
The  ornithologist  introduced  himself,  and  Rafinesque  handed 
him  a  letter  from  a  friend  in  the  East,  commending  him  to  Au- 
dubon as  an  "  odd  fish,  which  might  not  be  described  in  the 
published  treatises."  The  story  of  the  interview  is  thus  de- 
scribed by  Audubon : 

"  His  attire  struck  me  as  exceedingly  remarkable.  A  long, 
loose  coat  of  yellow  nankeen,  much  the  worse  for  the  many 
rubs  it  had  got  in  its  time,  hung  about  him  loosely,  like  a  sack. 
A  waistcoat  of  the  same,  with  enormous  pockets  and  buttoned 
up  to  the  chin,  reached  below  over  a  pair  of  tight  pantaloons, 
the  lower  part  of  which  was  buttoned  down  over  his  ankles. 
His  beard  was  long,  and  his  lank  black  hair  hung  loosely  over 
his  shoulders.  His  forehead  was  broad  and  prominent,  indicat- 
ing a  mind  of  strong  power.  His  words  impressed  an  assur- 
ance of  rigid  truth  ;  and  as  he  directed  the  conversation  to  the 
natural  sciences,  I  listened  to  him  with  great  delight. 

"  That  night,  after  we  were  all  abed,  I  heard  of  a  sudden  a 
great  uproar  in  the  naturalist's  room.  I  got  up  and  opened 
the  door,  when  to  my  astonishment  I  saw  my  guest  running 
naked,  holding  the  handle  of  my  favourite  Cremona,  the  body 


1 88  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

of  which  had  been  battered  to  pieces  in  attempting  to  kill  the 
bats  which  had  entered  the  open  window !  I  stood  amazed ; 
but  he  continued  jumping  and  running  around  and  around 
until  he  was  fairly  exhausted,  when  he  begged  me  to  procure 
one  of  the  animals  for  him,  as  he  felt  convinced  that  they  be- 
longed to  a  new  species.  Although  I  was  convinced  of  the 
contrary,  I  took  up  the  bow  of  my  demolished  violin,  and,  giv- 
ing a  smart  tip  to  each  bat  as  it  came  up,  we  soon  had  speci- 
mens enough." 

A  part  of  the  story  of  this  visit,  which  Audubon  does  not 
tell,  may  be  briefly  related  here :  Audubon  was  a  great  artist, 
and  his  paintings  of  birds  and  flowers  excited  the  wonder  and 
admiration  of  Rafinesque,  as  they  have  that  of  generations 
since  his  time.  But  Audubon  was  something  of  a  wag  withal, 
and  some  spirit  of  mischief  led  him  to  revenge  the  loss  of  his 
violin  on  the  too  ready  credulity  of  his  guest.  He  showed  him 
gravely  some  ten  grotesque  drawings  of  impossible  fishes  which 
he  had  observed  "  down  the  river,"  with  notes  on  their  habits, 
and  a  list  of  the  names  by  which  they  were  known  by  the 
French  and  English  settlers.  These  Rafinesque  duly  copied 
into  his  notebooks,  and  later  he  published  descriptions  of  them 
as  representatives  of  new  genera,  such  as  Pogostoma,  Aplocen- 
trus,  Litholepis,  Pilodictis,  Pomacampis,  and  the  like. 

These  singular  genera,  so  like  and  yet  so  unlike  anything 
yet  known,  have  been  a  standing  puzzle  to  students  of  fishes. 
Various  attempts  at  identification  of  them  have  been  made,  but 
in  no  case  have  satisfactory  results  been  reached.  Many  of 
the  hard  things  which  have  been  said  of  Rafinesque's  work  rest 
on  these  unlucky  genera,*  "  communicated  to  me  by  Mr.  Au- 
dubon." The  true  story  of  this  practical  joke  was  told  me  by 
the  venerable  Dr.  Kirtland,  who  in  turn  received  it  from  Dr. 
Bachman,  the  brother-in-law  and  scientific  associate  of  Audu- 
bon. In  the  private  notebooks  of  Rafinesque  I  have  since 
found  his  copies  of  these  drawings,  and  a  glance  at  these  is 
sufficient  to  show  the  extent  to  which  science  through  him  has 
been  victimized. 


*  I  am  informed  by  Dr.  J.  A.  Allen  that  there  are  also  some  unidentified 
genera  of  herons,  similarly  described  by  Rafinesque  from  drawings  kindly 
shown  him  by  Mr.  Audubon.  Apparently  these  also  date  from  the  same  un- 
lucky practical  joke. 


CONST ANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  jgg 

About  this  time  Rafinesque  turned  his  mind  again  toward 
invention.  He  invented  the  present  arrangement  of  coupon 
bonds,  or,  as  he  called  it,  "  the  divitial  invention."  Savings 
banks  were  projected  by  him,  as  well  as  "  steam  ploughs," 
"aquatic  railroads,"  "  artificial  leather,"  fireproof  houses,  and 
other  contrivances  which  he  was  unable  to  perfect.  He  took 
much  delight  in  the  study  of  the  customs  and  languages  of  the 
Indians.  In  so  doing,  if  the  stories  are  true,  he  became,  in  a 
way,  associated  with  the  origin  of  Mormonism ;  for  it  is  said 
that  his  theory  that  the  Indians  came  from  Asia  by  way  of 
Siberia,  and  were  perhaps  the  descendants  of  the  ten  lost 
tribes  of  Israel,  gave  the  first  suggestion  to  Solomon  Spaulding 
for  his  book  of  the  prophet  Mormon.  In  any  case,  whether 
this  be  true  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  Rafinesque  is  still  cited  as 
high  authority  by  the  Latter-Day  Saints  when  the  genuineness 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  questioned. 

Rafinesque  now  returned  to  Philadelphia,  and  published 
The  Atlantic  Journal  and  Friend  of  Knowledge,  Annals  of 
Nature,  and  other  serials,  of  which  he  was  editor,  publisher, 
and  usually  sole  contributor.  After  a  time  he  became  sole 
subscriber  also — a  condition  of  affairs  which  greatly  exas- 
perated him  against  the  Americans  and  their  want  of  apprecia- 
tion of  science.  He  published  several  historical  treatises,  and 
contemplated  a  Complete  History  of  the  Globe,  with  all  its 
contents.  An  elaborate  poem  of  his,  dreary  enough,  is  en- 
titled The  World;  or,  Instability.  He  made  many  enemies 
among  the  American  botanists  of  his  time  by  his  overbearing 
ways,  his  scorn  of  their  customs  and  traditions,  and  especially 
by  his  advocacy  of  crude  and  undigested  though  necessary 
reforms,  so  that  at  last  most  of  them  decided  to  ignore  his 
very  existence.  In  the  words  of  Dr.  Baldwin,  "these  bota- 
nists possessed  independence  enough  to  reject  the  wild  effusions 
of  a  literary  madman."  In  those  days,  in  matters  of  classifi- 
cation, the  rule  of  Linnaeus  was  supreme,  and  any  effort  to 
recast  his  artificial  groupings  was  looked  at  as  heretical  be- 
yond all  toleration.  The  attempt  at  a  natural  classification 
of  plants,  which  has  made  the  fame  of  Jussieu,  had  the  full 
sympathy  of  Rafinesque ;  but  to  his  American  contemporaries 
such  work  could  lead  only  to  confusion.  Then,  again,  in 
some  few  of  its  phases,  Rafinesque  anticipated  the  modern 
doctrine  of  the  origin  of  species.  That  the  related  species  of 


190 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


such  genera  as  JKosaJ  Quercus,  and  Trifolium  have  had  a  com- 
mon origin — a  view  the  correctness  of  which  no  well-informed 
botanist  of  our  day  can  possibly  doubt — Rafinesque  then  main- 
tained against  the  combined  indignation  and  disgust  of  all  his 
fellow-workers.  **  New  species  and  new  genera,"  he  said,  "  are 
continually  produced  by  derivation  from  existing  forms." 
His  writings  on  these  subjects  read  better  to-day  than  when, 
fifty  years  ago,  they  were  sharply  reviewed  by  one  of  our  then 
young  and  promising  botanists,  Dr.  Asa  Gray. 

But  the  botanists  had  good  reason  to  complain  of  the  ap- 
plication of  Rafinesque's  theories  of  evolution.  To  him  the 
production  of  a  new  species  was  a  rapid  process — a  hundred 
years  was  time  enough — and  when  he  saw  tendency  in  diverg- 
ing varieties  toward  the  formation  of  new  species,  he  was  eager 
to  anticipate  Nature  (and  his  fellow-botanists  as  well),  and 
give  it  a  new  name.  He  became  a  monomaniac  on  the  subject 
of  new  species.  He  was  uncontrolled  in  this  matter  by  the  in- 
fluence of  other  writers — that  incredulous  conservatism  as  to 
another's  discoveries  which  furnishes  a  salutary  balance  to  en- 
thusiastic workers.  Before  his  death  so  much  had  he  seen,  and 
so  little  had  he  compared,  that  he  had  described  certainly 
twice  as  many  fishes,  and  probably  nearly  twice  as  many  plants 
and  shells,  as  really  existed  in  the  regions  over  which  he  had 
travelled.  He  once  sent  for  publication  a  paper  seriously  de- 
scribing, in  regular  natural  history  style,  twelve  new  species  of 
thunder  and  lightning  which  he  had  observed  near  the  Falls  of 
the  Ohio. 

Then,  too,  Rafinesque  studied  in  the  field,  collecting  and 
observing  in  the  summer,  comparing  and  writing  in  the  winter. 
When  one  is  chasing  a  frog  in  a  canebrake,  or  climbing  a  cliff 
in  search  of  a  rare  flower,  he  can  not  have  a  library  and  a  mu- 
seum at  his  back.  The  exact  work  of  our  modern  museums 
and  laboratories  was  almost  unknown  in  his  day.  Science  cares 
little  for  information  which  is  not  absolutely  exact.  Then, 
again,  he  depended  too  much  on  his  memory  for  facts  and  de- 
tails; and,  as  Prof.  Agassiz  used  to  say,  "the  memory  must 
not  be  kept  too  full,  or  it  wilt  spill  over."  It  is,  moreover, 
true  that  Rafinesque  was  very  severe  on  other  botanists,  who 
repaid  his  scorn  with  generous  interest.  One  example  will 
serve,  as  told  by  Dr.  Meehan.  An  interesting  plant  was  found 
on  the  Wissahickon,  near  Philadelphia.  Dr.  Kuhn,  a  former 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  igi 

pupil  of  Linnaeus,  was  giving  botanical  lectures  there.  He 
sent  the  plant  to  his  master,  who  named  it  Kuhnia.  Rafi- 
nesque  made  this  comment :  "  Kuhn  was  but  a  poor  botanist, 
and  hardly  deserved  to  have  so  fine  a  plant  named  for  him. 
He  did  not  find  the  plant,  but  only  took  it  to  Linnaeus,  who  was 
flattered  because  his  students  gave  the  first  botanical  lectures 
in  America;  but  Kuhn  has  written  nothing." 

Thus  it  came  about  that  the  name  and  work  of  Rafinesque 
fell  into  utter  neglect.  His  writings,  scattered  here  and  there 
in  small  pamphlets,  cheap  editions  published  at  his  own  ex- 
pense, had  been  sold  as  paper-rags,  or  used  to  kindle  fires  for 
those  to  whom  they  were  sent,  and  late  authors  could  not  find 
them.  His  Ichthyologia  Ohiensis,  once  sold  for  a  dollar,  is  now 
quoted  at  fifty  dollars,  and  although  it  has  been  my  fortune  to 
be  reviewer  and  re-editor  of  this  work  and  to  show  its  claims 
for  a  place  in  modern  science,  I  have  seen  but  two  copies  of  it. 
The  restoration  of  Rafinesque  to  his  proper  place  in  ichthy- 
ology is  a  thankless  but  necessary  piece  of  work  which  some 
fourteen  years  ago  fell  to  my  lot.  It  has  been  the  fortune  of 
Prof.  E.  L.  Greene,  of  the  University  of  California,  to  fix  Rafi- 
nesque's  place  in  American  botany.  In  the  absence  of  means 
to  form  a  just  opinion  of  his  work,  it  became  the  habit  to  pass 
him  by  with  a  sneer,  as  the  "  inspired  idiot,  .  .  .  whose  fertile 
imagination  has  peopled  the  waters  of  the  Ohio."  Until  lately, 
only  Prof.  Agassiz  *  has  said  a  word  in  mitigation  of  the  harsh 
verdict  passed  on  Rafinesque  by  his  fellow-workers  and  their 
immediate  successors.  Agassiz  says,  very  justly : 

"  I  am  satisfied  that  Rafinesque  was  a  better  man  than  he 
appeared.  His  misfortune  was  his  prurient  desire  for  novelties, 
and  his  rashness  in  publishing  them.  .  .  .  Tracing  his  course 
as  a  naturalist  during  his  residence  in  this  country,  it  is  plain 
that  he  alarmed  those  with  whom  he  had  intercourse  by  his 
innovations,  and  that  they  preferred  to  lean  upon  the  authority 
of  the  great  naturalist  of  the  age  (Cuvier),  who,  however,  knew 
little  of  the  special  history  of  the  country,  rather  than  to  trust 
a  somewhat  hasty  man  who  was  living  among  them,  and  who 


*  So  early  as  1844  Prof.  Agassiz  wrote  to  Charles  Lucien  Bonaparte:  "I 
think  that  there  is  a  justice  due  Rafinesque.  However  poor  his  descriptions, 
he  first  recognised  the  necessity  of  multiplying  genera  in  ichthyology,  and  this 
at  a  time  when  the  thing  was  far  more  difficult  than  now." 


I92 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


had  collected  a  vast  amount  of  information  from  all  parts  of 
the  States  upon  a  variety  of  subjects  then  entirely  new  to  sci- 
ence."* 

Prof.  Herbert  E.  Copeland  has  said : 

"  To  many  of  our  untiring  naturalists,  who  sixty  years  ago 
accepted  the  perils  and  privations  of  the  far  West  to  collect 
and  describe  its  animals  and  plants,  we  have  given  the  only 
reward  they  sought — a  grateful  remembrance  of  their  work. 
Audubon  died  full  of  riches  and  honour,  with  the  knowledge 
that  his  memory  would  be  cherished  as  long  as  birds  should 
sing.  Wilson  is  the  *  father  of  American  ornithology,'  and  his 
mistakes  and  faults  are  forgotten  in  our  admiration  of  his 
great  achievements.  Lesueur  is  remembered  as  the 'first  to 
explore,  the  ichthyology  of  the  great  American  lakes.'  La- 
bouring with  these,  and  greatest  of  them  all  in  respect  to  the 
extent  and  range  of  his  accomplishments,  is  one  whose  name 
has  been  nearly  forgotten,  and  who  is  oftenest  mentioned  in 
the  field  of  his  best  labours  with  pity  and  contempt." 

Dr.  Goode,  still  later,  has  said  :  "  Perhaps  the  time  has  not 
yet  come  when  full  justice  can  be  done  to  the  memory  of  Con- 
stantine  Rafinesque,  but  his  name  seems  yearly  to  grow  more 
prominent  in  the  history  of  American  zoology.  He  was  in 
many  respects  the  most  gifted  man  who  ever  stood  in  our 
ranks.  When  in  his  prime,  he  far  surpassed  his  American  con- 
temporaries in  versatility  and  comprehensiveness  of  grasp. 
He  lived  a  century  too  soon.  His  spirit  was  that  of  the  pres- 
ent period.  In  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  soured  by  disap- 
pointments, he  seemed  to  become  unsettled  in  his  mind ;  but 
as  I  read  the  story  of  his  life  his  eccentricities  seem  to  me  the 
outcome  of  a  boundless  enthusiasm  for  the  study  of  Nature." 

"I  have  often  been  discouraged,"  Rafinesque  says,  "but  I 
have  never  despaired  long.  I  have  lived  to  serve  mankind, 
but  have  often  met  with  ungrateful  returns.  I  have  tried  to 
enlarge  the  limits  of  knowledge,  but  have  often  met  with  jeal- 
ous rivals  instead  of  friends.  With  a  greater  fortune,  I  might 
have  imitated  Humboldt  or  Linnaeus." 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  while,  as  Prof.  Agassiz  has  said, 
Rafinesque  "was  a  better  man  than  he  appeared,"  and  while 
he  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  great  learning  and  of  greater 

*  Agassiz,  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  1854,  p.  354. 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  ^3 

energy,  his  work  does  not  deserve  a  high  place  in  the  records 
of  science.  And  his  failure  seems  due  to  two  things :  first,  his 
lack  of  attention  to  details,  a  defect  which  has  vitiated  all  of 
his  work  ;  and,  second,  his  versatility,  which  led  him  to  attempt 
work  in  every  field  of  learning.  As  to  this,  he  says  him- 
self:* 

"  It  is  a  positive  fact  that  in  knowledge  I  have  been  a  bota- 
nist, naturalist,  geologist,  geographer,  historian,  poet,  philoso- 
pher, philologist,  economist,  philanthropist ;  by  profession  a 
traveller,  merchant,  manufacturer,  brewer,  collector,  improver, 
teacher,  surveyor,  draughtsman,  architect,  engineer,  pulmist, 
author,  editor,  bookseller,  librarian,  secretary,  and  I  hardly 
know  what  I  may  not  become  as  yet,  since,  whenever  I  apply 
myself  to  anything  which  I  like,  I  never  fail  to  succeed,  if  de- 
pending on  myself  alone,  unless  impeded  or  prevented  by  the 
lack  of  means,  or  the  hostility  of  the  foes  of  mankind." 

But  a  traveller  Rafinesque  chiefly  considered  himself ;  and 
to  him  all  his  pursuits,  scientific,  linguistic,  historical,  were  but 
episodes  in  a  life  of  travel.  Two  lines  of  doggerel  French  were 
his  motto : 

"  Un  voyageur  des  le  berceau, 
Je  le  serai  jusqu'au  tombeau." 

"  A  traveller  from  the  cradle, 
I'm  a  traveller  to  the  tomb." 

On  the  medal  granted  him  by  the  French  Geographical  So- 
ciety is  another  motto,  evidently  original  with  him : 

"  De  Linne 
Le  Ge*nie 
II  a  choise  pour  guide." 

"  The  spirit  of  Linnaeus  he  chose  as  his  guide." 

From  this  medal,  which  he  hoped  would  remain  as  the  pride 
of  his  family  and  successors,  long  since  turned  as  old  gold  into 
the  United  States  Mint,  the  only  known  portrait  of  Rafinesque 
has  been  taken. 

Long  before  the  invention  of  railroads  and  steamboats  he 
had  travelled  on  foot  tens  of  thousands  of  miles  over  most  of 
southern  Europe  and  eastern  North  America,  when  eastern 
North  America  was  as  new  as  Zululand  is  now.  Without  money, 

*  American  Naturalist,  1876. 


194  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

except  as  he  earned  it,  he  had  gathered  shells  and  plants  and 
fishes  on  every  shore  from  the  Hellespont  to  the  Wabash. 

Concerning  one  element  of  Rafinesque's  character  I  am 
able  to  find  no  record.  If  he  ever  loved  man  or  woman,  except 
as  a  possible  patron  and  therefore  aid  to  his  schemes  of  travel, 
he  himself  gives  no  record  of  it.  He  speaks  kindly  of  Audu- 
bon ;  but  Audubon  had  furnished  him  with  specimens  and 
paintings  of  flowers  and  fishes.  He  speaks  generously  of  Clif- 
ford, at  Lexington ;  but  Clifford  had  given  him  an  asylum 
when  he  was  turned  out  of  the  Transylvania  University.  No 
woman  is  mentioned  in  his  Autobiography  except  his  mother 
and  sister,  and  these  but  briefly.  His  own  travels,  discoveries, 
and  publications  filled  his  whole  mind  and  soul.  Were  it  not 
for  his  will,  recently  discovered  and  published  by  Thomas  Mee- 
han,  nothing  would  have  been  known  of  his  family  or  children. 
From  this  will  we  learn  that  his  son,  Charles  Linnaeus  Rafinesque, 
died  in  1815.  His  wife,  in  the  same  year,  married  a  comedian, 
who  squandered  his  property,  and  who  was  supported  by  the 
earnings  of  the  daughter,  Emily  Rafinesque,  who  was  a  singer 
in  the  Palermo  theatre. 

In  his  will  he  says,  "  I  leave  my  immortal  soul  to  the  Crea- 
tor of  the  Universe,  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  millions  of  worlds 
soaring  through  space,  to  be  sent  to  whatever  world  he  may 
deem  fit,  according  to  his  wise  laws."  His  body  he  left  to  be 
burned,  not  to  contaminate  the  earth.  "  My  ashes,  if  they  can 
be  collected,"  he  says,  I  wish  deposited  in  an  urn  to  be  kept 
with  my  collections." 

His  property,  consisting  of  inventions  and  specimens,  was 
to  be  divided  between  his  sister,  his  daughter,  and  a  school 
for  orphan  girls  on  the  plan  of  Girard  College. 

These  plans  were  not  carried  out,  for  his  sister  died  before 
him ;  his  daughter  seems  to  have  entered  no  claim ;  the  inven- 
tory of  the  sales  of  his  herbarium  and  books  as  waste  paper, 
the  sale  by  auction  of  his  black  bottles,  boxes,  and  demi- 
johns, clothing,  gold  medal,  and  all,  shows  that  after  all  was 
paid  and  the  executor  and  cataloguer  had  received  their  per- 
centage, Rafinesque  was  still  indebted  to  the  world  in  the  sum 
of  thirteen  dollars  and  forty-three  cents. 

Rafinesque  died  in  Philadelphia,  in  1840,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
six.  He  had  lived  obscurely  in  miserable  lodgings;  for  his 
dried  plants,  and  his  books,  published  at  his  own  expense, 


CONSTANTINE   SAMUEL   RAFINESQUE.  ^5 

brought  him  but  a  scanty  income.  His  scientific  reputation 
had  not  reached  his  fellow-lodgers,  and  his  landlord  thought 
him  "a  crazy  herb  doctor."  He  died  alone,  and  left  no  visible 
assets ;  and  his  landlord  refused  to  allow  his  friends — such 
friends  as  he  had — to  enter  the  house  to  give  him  a  decent 
burial.  He  wished  to  make  good  the  unpaid  rent  by  selling 
the  body  to  a  medical  college.  At  night,  so  the  story  goes, 
Dr.  Bringhurst,  who  had  studied  botany  with  Rafinesque,  got 
a  few  friends  together,  broke  into  the  garret  in  which  the  body 
had  been  locked,  and  let  it  down  out  of  the  window  by  a  rope. 
Then  they  carried  it  away  and  buried  it  in  a  little  churchyard 
outside  the  city  limits.  This  place  has  lately  been  identified 
as  Ronaldson's  Cemetery,  on  the  corner  of  Ninth  and  Catharine 
Streets.  Which  was  his  grave  we  know  not,  for  in  the  growth 
of  Philadelphia  the  whole  cemetery  has  been  almost  obliterated 
and  forgotten. 

American  naturalists  have  greater  honour  now  than  fifty 
years  ago.  Rafinesque  died  unnoticed,  and  was  buried  only  by 
stealth.  A  whole  nation  wept  for  Agassiz.  But  a  difference 
was  in  the  men  as  well  as  the  times.  Both  were  great  natural- 
ists and  learned  men.  Both  had  left  high  reputations  in  Eu- 
rope to  cast  their  lot  with  America.  Agassiz's  great  heart 
went  out  toward  every  one  with  whom  he  came  in  contact ; 
but  Rafinesque  loved  no  man  or  woman,  and  died,  as  he  lived, 
alone.  If  some  one  who  loved  him  had  followed  him  to  the 
last,  it  might  have  been  with  Rafinesque  as  with  Albrecht 
Diirer  :  "  l  fimigravit*  is  the  inscription  on  the  headstone  where 
he  lies."  But  there  was  no  one;  and  there  is  neither  head- 
stone nor  inscription,  and  we  know  not  even  the  place  where 
he  rests  after  his  long  journey. 

The  last  recorded  words  of  Rafinesque  were  these  :  "  Time 
renders  justice  to  all  alike  "  ;  and  to  the  justice  of  time  we  may 
leave  him. 


JAMES   POLLARD   ESPY. 

1785-1860. 

METEOROLOGY  is  one  of  the  youngest  of  the  sciences. 
Most  of  what  is  settled  and  systematized  has  been  developed 
within  the  memory  of  men  who  are  still  living.  The  contribu- 
tions of  Americans  to  research  in  this  branch  have  been  among 
the  most  important.  Of  the  earlier  labours  in  this  field  none 
deserve  or  have  received  wider  recognition  than  those  of  Prof. 
Espy.  He  may,  indeed,  be  regarded  with  justice  as  the  founder 
of  the  science  as  at  present  cultivated  in  relation  to  storm  pre- 
dictions. 

James  P.  Espy  was  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Pa.,  May 
9,  1785,  and  died  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  January  24,  1860.  While 
he  was  still  an  infant  his  father  moved  to  the  Blue  Grass  region 
of  Kentucky ;  but,  on  finding  the  institution  of  slavery  antag- 
onistic to  the  principles  inherited  from  his  Huguenot  ancestry, 
he  removed  after  a  few  years  to  the  Miami  Valley  in  Ohio. 
One  of  his  daughters  had  in  the  meantime  married  a  Kentuck- 
ian  of  Mount  Sterling,  and  James,  remaining  with  this  sister 
for  the  sake  of  the  opportunity,  became,  at  eighteen  years 
of  age,  a  student  in  Transylvania  University,  at  Lexington. 
Here  he  was  visited  in  1805  by  an  elder  brother,  who  was  en- 
gaged in  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Pennsylvania,  who  wrote  of 
him :  "  I  met  my  brother  James,  whom  I  had  not  seen  since  he 
was  an  infant.  I  found  him  at  the  university,  where  he  had 
made  considerable  progress  in  the  dead  languages  and  in  gen- 
eral science.  He  shows  an  ardent  desire  for  knowledge,  and 
promises  to  be  both  intelligent  and  useful."  He  was  graduated 
in  1808,  and  went  to  Xenia,  Ohio,  where  he  taught  school  and 
studied  law.  Of  this  part  of  his  career,  Mrs.  L.  M.  Morehead, 
his  niece,  in  her  Few  Incidents  *  of  his  life,  says  that  "  his 

*  A  Few  Incidents  in  the  Life  of  Prof.  James  P.  Espy,  by  his  Niece,  Mrs. 
L.  M.  Morehead,  Cincinnati,  Robert  Clarke  &  Co. 

196 


JAMES  P.  ESPY. 


JAMES   POLLARD   ESPY.  Igy 

love  for  teaching  amounted  to  enthusiasm,  and,  although  he 
completed  his  law  studies,  he  finally  abandoned  the  idea  of 
choosing  the  law  as  his  profession,  and  determined  to  follow 
the  bent  of  his  inclination,  and  become  a  conscientious  in- 
structor of  youth."  To  his  latest  years  "  he  considered  this  a 
noble  profession,  and  even  in  old  age  was  fond  of  drawing  out 
young  students  to  talk  over  their  lessons  with  him,  both  hear- 
ing them  and  asking  them  questions."  Either  before  or  after 
this — the  authorities  differ — he  filled  creditably  and  satisfac- 
torily the  position  of  principal  of  the  academy  at  Cumberland, 
Md.,  where  he  married  Miss  Margaret  Pollard,  who  afterward 
gave  him  her  full  sympathy  and  encouragement  in  his  meteoro- 
logical researches.  She  was  physically  delicate  and,  although 
younger  than  her  husband,  died  ten  years  before  him.  They 
had  no  children. 

In  1817  Mr.  Espy  became  a  teacher  in  the  classical  depart- 
ment of  the  Franklin  Institute,  a  position  in  which,  according 
to  Prof.  Dallas  Bache,  he  became  known  as  "  one  of  the 
best  classical  and  mathematical  instructors  in  Philadelphia, 
which  at  that  day  numbered  Dr.  Wylie,  Mr.  Sanderson,  and 
Mr.  Crawford  among  its  teachers.  Impressed  by  the  researches 
and  writings  of  Dalton  and  of  Daniell  on  meteorology,"  Prof. 
Bache  continued,  in  a  eulogy  before  the  Regents  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  "  Mr.  Espy  began  to  observe  the  phenomena 
and  then  to  experiment  on  the  facts  which  form  the  ground- 
work of  the  science.  As  he  observed,  experimented,  and 
studied,  his  enthusiasm  grew,  and  his  desire  to  devote  himself 
exclusively  to  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  the  science  finally 
became  so  strong  that  he  determined  to  give  up  his  school, 
and  to  rely  for  the  means  of  prosecuting  his  researches  upon 
:his  slender  savings  and  the  success  of  his  lectures,  probably 
the  most  original  which  have  ever  been  delivered  on  this 
subject.  His  first  course  was  given  before  the  Franklin  Insti- 
tute of  Pennsylvania,  of  which  he  had  long  been  an  active 
member,  and  where  he  met  kindred  spirits,  ready  to  discuss  the 
principles  or  the  applications  of  science,  and  prepared  to  ex- 
tend their  views  over  the  whole  horizon  of  physical  and  me- 
chanical research.  As  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Meteor- 
ology, Mr.  Espy  had  a  large  share  in  the  organization  of  the 
complete  system  of  meteorological  observations  carried  on  by 
the  Institute  under  the  auspices  and  within  the  limits  of  the 


198 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


State  of  Pennsylvania."  Mrs.  Morehead  quotes  from  the  ac- 
count of  a  friend  who  visited  him  in  Philadelphia  a  description 
of  Prof.  Espy's  method  of  pursuing  his  atmospheric  calcula- 
tions, which  necessarily  had  to  be  carried  on  out  of  doors.  The 
high  fence  inclosing  the  small  yard  was  of  smooth  plank,  paint- 
ed white,  while  the  space  inclosed  was  filled  with  vessels  of 
water  and  numerous  thermometers  for  determining  the  dew- 
point.  The  white  fence,  when  last  seen  by  the  narrator,  was 
so  covered  with  figures  and  calculations  that  not  a  spot  re- 
mained for  another  sum  or  column.  Prof.  Espy's  theory  of 
storms  was  first  developed  in  successive  memoirs  in  the  Jour- 
nal of  the  Franklin  Institute,  containing  discussions  of  the 
changes  of  temperature,  pressure,  and  moisture  of  the  air,  and 
of  the  direction  and  force  of  the  wind,  and  other  phenomena 
attending  remarkable  storms  in  the  United  States  and  on  the 
ocean  adjacent  to  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast.  "Assuming 
great  simplicity,"  says  Prof.  Bache,  "  as  it  was  developed,  and 
founded  on  the  established  laws  of  physics,  and  upon  ingenious 
and  well-directed  experiments,  this  theory  drew  general  atten- 
tion to  itself,  especially  in  the  United  States.  A  memoir  sub- 
mitted anonymously  to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  of 
Philadelphia  gained  for  Mr.  Espy  the  award  of  the  Magellanic 
premium  in  the  year  1836,  after  a  discussion  remarkable  for 
ingenuity  and  closeness  in  its  progress,  and  for  the  almost  per- 
fect unanimity  of  its  result." 

In  1840  Prof.  Espy,  by  invitation,  visited  England  for  the 
purpose  of  explaining  his  theory  of  storms  before  the  British 
Association.  He  presented  it,  in  an  elaborate  paper,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1840,  Prof.  Forbes  being  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
meeting,  after  which  it  was  subjected  to  a  lively  discussion,  in 
which  some  of  the  most  eminent  British  scientific  men  of  the 
day  took  part,  some  sustaining  it  and  some  presenting  objec- 
tions to  it.  He  afterward  visited  Paris,  and  presented  a  com- 
munication to  the  Academy  of  Sciences.  The  committee  to 
whom  the  communication  was  referred,  consisting  of  MM. 
Arago,  Pouillet,  and  Babinet,  at  the  conclusion  of  their  report, 
admitted  that  the  memoir  "  contains  a  great  number  of  well- 
observed  and  well-described  facts.  His  theory  in  the  present 
state  of  science  alone  accounts  for  the  phenomena,  and  when 
completed,  as  Mr.  Espy  intends,  by  the  study  of  the  action  of 
electricity  when  it  intervenes,  will  leave  nothing  to  be  desired. 


JAMES   POLLARD   ESPY. 

In  a  word,  for  physical  geography,  agriculture,  navigation, 
and  meteorology,  it  gives  us  new  explanations,  indications 
useful  for  ulterior  researches,  and  redresses  many  accredited 
errors.  The  committee  expresses,  then,  the  wish  that  Mr. 
Espy  may  be  placed  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States 
in  a  position  to  continue  his  important  investigations,  and  to 
complete  his  theory,  already  so  remarkable,  by  means  of  all 
the  observations  and  all  the  experiments  which  the  deductions 
even  of  his  theory  may  suggest  to  him  in  a  vast  country, 
where  enlightened  men  are  not  wanting  to  science,  and  which 
is,  besides,  the  home  of  those  fearful  storms.  The  work  of 
Mr.  Espy  causes  us  to  feel  the  necessity  of  undertaking  a  re- 
trospective examination  of  the  numerous  documents  already 
collected  in  Europe,  to  arrange  them,  and  draw  from  them  de- 
ductions which  they  can  furnish,  and  more  especially  at  the 
present  period,  when  the  diluvial  rains  which  have  ravaged  the 
southeast  of  France  have  directed  attention  to  all  the  possible 
causes  of  similar  phenomena.  Consequently,  the  committee 
proposes  to  the  Academy  to  give  its  approbation  to  the  labours 
of  Mr.  Espy,  and  to  solicit  him  to  continue  his  researches, 
and  especially  to  try  to  ascertain  the  influence  which  elec- 
tricity exerts  in  these  great  phenomena,  of  which  a  complete 
theory  will  be  one  of  the  most  precious  acquisitions  of  modern 
science." 

This  report  was  incorporated  in  full  in  the  introduction  to 
The  Philosophy  of  Storms — "  not  merely,"  as  the  author  says 
with  characteristic  independence  of  opinion,  "  for  the  purpose 
of  showing  the  reader  that  I  have  the  highest  authority  on  my 
side — for  I  do  not  submit  to  authority  myself — but  to  exhibit 
a  beautiful  analysis  of  my  theory  by  three  of  the  most  dis- 
tinguished philosophers  in  Europe.  As  a  matter  of  authority, 
however,  I  should  be  justified  in  bringing  forward  the  report 
to  rebut  authority.  It  had  been  sneeringly  said  before  a  large 
audience,  by  a  distinguished  professor,  that  I  had  failed  to 
convince  men  of  science  of  the  truth  of  my  theory,  and  that  I 
had  appealed  to  the  people,  who  are  incapable  of  judging.  It 
became,  therefore,  necessary  to  obtain  authority  against  au- 
thority." 

The  origin  of  the  studies  upon  which  the  theory  of  storms 
is  based  is  traced  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  the  Philosophy 
to  the  result  described  by  Dalton,  that  the  quantity  of  vapour 


200  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

in  weight,  existing  at  any  time  in  a  given  place,  could  be  deter- 
mined by  means  of  a  thermometer  and  a  tumbler  of  water  cold 
enough  to  condense  on  its  outs.ide  a  portion  of  the  vapour  in 
the  air.  "It  occurred  to  me  at  once,"  Prof.  Espy  says,  "that 
this  was  the  lever  with  which  the  meteorologist  was  to  move 
the  world.  I  immediately  commenced  the  study  and  exami- 
nation of  atmospheric  phenomena,  determined  to  discover,  if 
possible,  what  connection  there  is  between  rain  and  the  quan- 
tity of  vapour  in  the  atmosphere."  Prof.  Espy  prefaced  his 
paper  in  the  British  Association  by  saying  that  he  had  found, 
by  examining  simultaneous  observations  in  the  middle  of  storms 
and  all  round  their  borders,  that  the  wind  blows  inward  on  all 
sides  of  a  storm  toward  its  central  parts ;  toward  a  point  if  the 
storm  is  round,  and  toward  a  line  if  the  storm  is  oblong,  ex- 
tending through  its  longest  diameter.  The  theory  is,  in  brief, 
that  every  atmospheric  disturbance  begins  with  the  ascension 
of  air  that  has  been  rarefied  by  heat.  The  rising  mass  dilates, 
and,  as  its  temperature  falls,  precipitates  vapour  in  the  form 
of  clouds.  Owing  to  the  liberation  of  the  latent  heat,  the  dila- 
tation continues  with  the  rising  till  the  moisture  of  the  air  form- 
ing the  upward  current  is  practically  exhausted.  The  heavier 
air  flows  in  beneath,  and,  finding  a  diminished  pressure  above 
it,  rushes  upward  with  constantly  increasing  violence.  The 
great  quantity  of  aqueous  vapour  precipitated  during  this 
atmospheric  disturbance  gives  rise  to  heavy  rains.  Much  of 
this  theory  still  holds  good ;  but  it  has  been  found  that  the 
motion  of  the  wind  in  storms  is  rotary. 

Besides  his  explanation  and  proofs  of  this  theory,  Prof. 
Espy  presented  to  the  British  Association  a  paper  on  Four 
Fluctuations  of  the  Barometer.  The  theory  was  more  fully 
elaborated  in  The  Philosophy  of  Storms,  which  was  published 
in  a  large  octavo  volume  by  Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  Boston,  in 
1841,  and  was  re-enforced  by  detailed  descriptions  of  a  large 
number  of  storms  occurring  on  the  land  and  the  ocean,  the 
course  of  which  the  author  had  been  able  to  follow  and  study 
with  considerable  accuracy.  It  also  contained  his  answers  to 
the  criticisms  which  had  been  made  against  his  theory  in  the 
British  Association  and  elsewhere  by  prominent  men  of  science 
and  rival  meteorologists.  In  it,  furthermore,  he  defended  his 
theory  that  storms  could  be  produced  by  large  fires  making 
local  disturbances  in  the  equilibrium  of  temperature,  whence 


JAMES   POLLARD   ESPY.  2OI 

follow  ascending  currents,  cloud,  and  rain.  He  spent  much 
effort  in  trying  to  secure  an  experimental  demonstration  of  this 
scheme,  and  made  unsuccessful  petitions  to  Congress  and  the 
Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  for  appropriations  to  enable  him 
to  carry  them  out  on  an  adequate  scale.  The  scheme  was  not 
regarded  as  practicable,  and  he  became  the  object  of  some 
ridicule  for  his  enthusiasm — to  which  he  replied  in  his  book 
with  the  self-possession  of  a  man  who  believes  to  the  full  in 
his  purposes:  "Gentlemen  have  made  their  puns  on  this 
project,  and  had  their  laugh:  and  I  am  sorry  to  see,  by  let- 
ters which  I  have  received,  that  my  friends  and  relations  at  a 
distance  are  much  troubled  by  these  innocent  laughs ;  but  let 
them  be  consoled:  I  have  laughed  too,  well  knowing  that 
those  who  laughed  the  most  heartily  would  be  most  willing  to 
encourage  the  experiment  as  soon  as  they  discovered  they  had 
nothing  to  laugh  at.  As  a  proof  that  I  was  right  in  this  antici- 
pation, I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  I  have  lately  received 
a  letter  from  a  highly  distinguished  member  of  the  American 
Legislature,*  who  laughed  as  heartily  as  any  one  when  my 
petition  was  presented  them,  containing  many  kind  expres- 
sions, and  promising  me,  by  way  of  amends  for  his  levity,  to 
avail  himself  of  the  earliest  opportunity  of  being  better  in- 
formed on  the  subject  of  my  new  philosophy.  Such  conduct 
as  this  is  all  I  want ;  I  fear  not  the  strictest  scrutiny."  The 
same  confident  spirit  is  exhibited  in  his  letter  to  his  superior  in 
the  War  Department,  suggesting  a  second  year  of  employment 
in  the  official  study  of  storms,  and  which  is  given  in  facsimile 
on  the  following  page. 

In  1843  Prof.  Espy  was  given  a  position  in  the  War  Depart- 
ment, where  he  could  pursue  his  investigations  in  atmospheric 
currents  and  disturbances,  and  receive  reports  from  distant 
points  of  observation.  He  instituted  a  service  of  daily  weather 
reports,  out  of  which  our  present  Signal-Service  system  has 
grown ;  and,  on  the  basis  of  this  enterprise,  as  Mrs.  Morehead 
relates  in  her  book,  Prof.  Henry  once  remarked  to  her  that 
there  was  no  question  in  his  mind  that  "  Prof.  Espy  should  be 
regarded  as  the  father  of  the  present  Signal  Service  of  the 
United  States,  his  Theory  of  Storms  having  led  the  way  to  its 
establishment  and  present  success."  Prof.  Henry  added  that 

*  Hon.  J.  J.  Crittenden. 


202  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  charts  now  used  in  the  service  were  identical  (with  some 
modifications)  with  those  that  the  "  Old  Storm  King  "  constructed 
for  use  in  the  Meteorological  Bureau  of  the  War  Department 


.f>-i~.  SO  . 


/?**>•*. 


when  he  was  at  its  head.  A  similar  acknowledgment  was  made 
by  General  Myer.  Prof.  Espy  was  for  several  years  a  regent 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  was  brought  into  close  re- 
lations and  friendship  with  Prof.  Henry.  On  the  occasion  of 


JAMES   POLLARD   ESPY.  203 

his  death,  Prof.  Bache  pronounced  his  eulogy  in  the  Board  of 
Regents,  and  the  regents  passed  memorial  resolutions,  one  of 
which  describes  him  as  "  one  of  the  most  useful  and  zealous  of 
the  meteorologists  co-operating  with  the  Institution,  whose 
labours  in  both  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  of 
meteorology  have  merited  the  highest  honours  of  science  at 
home,  and  have  added  to  the  reputation  of  our  country 
abroad." 

Prof.  Espy  delivered  many  lectures  in  the  towns,  cities,  and 
villages  of  the  United  States,  explaining  his  theories  and  the 
results  of  his  observations.  These  efforts  were  very  success- 
ful, and,  according  to  Prof.  Bache,  by  their  originality  attract- 
ed more  attention  to  his  views  than  could  have  been  obtained 
in  any  other  way.  "  He  soon  showed  remarkable  power  in  ex- 
plaining his  ideas.  His  simplicity  and  clearness  enabled  his 
hearers  to  follow  him  without  too  great  effort,  and  the  earnest- 
ness with  which  he  expressed  his  convictions  carried  them 
away  in  favour  of  his  theory."  He  was  also  remarkably  suc- 
cessful in  gaining  the  sympathy  of  public  men,  and,  through 
them,  in  obtaining  from  the  Government  continued  opportuni- 
ties for  study,  research,  and  the  comparison  of  observations. 
His  reports  to  the  Surgeon-General  of  the  Army,  to  Congress, 
and  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  are  mentioned  as  among  his 
latest  efforts  in  this  direction. 

Prof.  Espy  is  charged  with  the  one  scientific  defect  that, 
with  his  deep  conviction  of  the  truth  of  his  theory,  and  the 
enthusiasm  it  fed  in  him,  he  could  not  pass  beyond  a  certain 
point  in  its  development,  and  for  the  same  reasons  his  deduc- 
tions were  often  unsafe.  He  was  not  prone  to  examine  and 
re-examine  premises  and  conclusions,  but  considered  what  had 
once  been  passed  upon  by  his  judgment  as  finally  settled. 
"  Hence  his  views  did  not  make  that  impression  upon  cooler 
temperaments  among  men  of  science  to  which  they  were  en- 
titled, obtaining  more  credit  among  scholars  and  men  of  gen- 
eral reading  in  our  country  than  among  scientific  men,  and 
making  but  little  progress  abroad."  But,  toward  the  close  of 
his  life,  he  was  induced,  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution,  to  re-examine  the  various  parts  of  his  theories, 
and  to  insert  in  his  Fourth  Report,  while  it  was  going  through 
the  press,  an  account  of  his  most  mature  views. 

Prof.  Espy  thought  much  on  subjects  of  mental  and  moral 


2O4 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA. 


philosophy,  and  after  his  death  his  relatives  in  Cincinnati  pub- 
lished his  short  Treatise  on  the  Will,  which  is  described  as  em- 
bodying some  original  and  striking  ideas. 

Personally,  according  to  Prof.  Bache,  "  Prof.  Espy  was  emi- 
nently social,  full  of  bonhomie  and  enthusiasm,  easily  kindling 
into  a  glow  by  social  mental  action.  In  the  meetings  and  free 
discussions  of  a  club  formed  for  promoting  research,  and  espe- 
cially for  scrutinizing  the  labours  of  its  members,  and  of  which 
Sears  C.  Walker,  Prof.  Henry,  Henry  D.  Rogers,  and  myself 
were  members,  Mr.  Espy  found  the  mental  stimulus  that  he 
needed,  and  the  criticism  which  he  courted,  the  best  aids  and 
checks  to  his  observations,  speculations,  and  experiments. 
But  there  was  one  person  who  had  more  influence  upon  him 
than  all  others  besides,  stimulating  him  to  progress,  and  urg- 
ing him  forward  in  each  step  with  a  zeal  which  never  flagged — 
this  was  his  wife."  Mrs.  Morehead  says  that  "  he  never  seemed 
impatient  or  concerned  at  the  slow  recognition  of  his  discov- 
eries as  means  of  practical  use  in  commerce  or  other  national 
needs.  He  would  say,  '  I  leave  all  this  to  the  future,  sure 
that  its  adaptation  to  the  uses  of  life  must  one  day  be  seen  and 
acknowledged.' " 


THOMAS   NUTTALL. 


THOMAS   NUTTALL. 

1786-1859. 

IT  has  often  happened  that  a  young  man  who  has  begun 
life  as  a  printer  has  afterward  attained  to  distinction  in  some 
more  intellectual  pursuit.  So  it  was  with  Benjamin  Franklin, 
and  so  it  was  with  him  whose  story  is  now  to  be  told.  Whether 
this  is  due  to  the  information  which  the  young  printer  obtains 
from  the  matter  constantly  passing  through  his  hands,  or 
whether  it  is  because  the  most  intellectual  of  the  young  men 
who  learn  a  mechanical  trade  take  to  printing,  it  would  be 
difficult  to  say.  The  fact  only  need  be  noted  here. 

Thomas  Nuttall  was  born  in  1786,  in  the  market  town  of 
Settle,  in  the  West  Riding  of  Yorkshire,  England.  His  parents 
were  probably  in  humble  circumstances,  for  at  an  early  age 
he  was  apprenticed  to  the  printer's  trade,  either  in  his  native 
town  or  in  Liverpool.  In  the  latter  place  he  had  an  uncle  en- 
gaged in  this  business,  for  whom  he  worked  as  a  journeyman 
several  years  ;  then,  having  had  a  disagreement  with  him,  young 
Nuttall  went  to  seek  employment  in  London.  He  was  not  for- 
tunate in  the  metropolis,  and  sometimes  went  to  bed  with- 
out knowing  where  he  would  get  his  breakfast  the  next 
morning. 

When  twenty-two  years  of  age  he  came  to  America,  land- 
ing in  Philadelphia.  He  must  have  devoted  a  large  part  of 
his  spare  moments  to  study  during  his  early  life,  for  he  has 
been  described  on  his  arrival  in  this  country  as  a  well-informed 
young  man,  knowing  the  history  of  his  country  and  somewhat 
familiar  with  some  branches  of  natural  history  and  even  with 
Latin  and  Greek.  A  testimony  to  his  early  studious  habits 
came  to  notice  sixteen  years  later.  It  is  thus  recorded  in  the 
biographical  notice  of  Nuttall,  read  by  Elias  Durand  before 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  which  has  been  taken  as 
the  basis  of  this  article: 


2o6  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

"When,  in  1824,  Prof.  Torrey  was  preparing  for  publica- 
tion his  Flora  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  States,  which  he 
dedicated  to  his  friend  Thomas  Nuttall,  with  high  compli- 
ments, the  printer  who  was  engaged  upon  it  asked  the  pro- 
fessor who  was  that  Nuttall  so  frequently  referred  to  in  his 
work,  adding  that  he  had  once  worked  with  a  printer  of  that 
name,  who  spent  the  greatest  part  of  his  time  reading 
books,  and  he  would  not  be  surprised  if  he  were  the  same 
man.  Prcf.  Torrey  rejoined  that  'his  surmise  was  correct; 
the  printer  of  former  times  had  proved  a  most  arduous 
labourer  in  the  field  of  science,  and  was  now  a  distinguished 
botanist  and  an  officer  of  one  of  the  first  scientific  institu- 
tions of  the  country.' " 

That  Nuttall  knew  nothing  of  botany  when  he  landed  in 
the  United  States  is  shown  by  an  anecdote  that  he  used  to  tell 
of  himself.  Taking  a  walk  in  the  outskirts  of  Philadelphia 
the  morning  after  his  arrival,  he  noticed  a  common  greenbrier 
(Smilax  rotundi folia).  "  Egad  !  "  said  he  to  himself,  "  there  is 
a  passion-flower";  and  he  plucked  some  branches  of  it,  which 
he  brought  home  for  inquiry.  His  fellow-boarders  could  not 
satisfy  him,  but  referred  him  to  a  certain  Prof.  Barton,  a  great 
botanist,  whose  residence  was  near.  With  his  treasured  branch 
in  his  hand,  Nuttall  called  at  once  upon  Prof.  Benjamin  S. 
Barton,  who  received  him  courteously  and  pointed  out  the  dif- 
ference between  the  genera  Smilax  and  Passiflora.  Then,  per- 
ceiving the  intelligence  of  the  young  man,  Prof.  Barton  went 
on  to  tell  him  some  of  the  general  principles  of  botany  and 
how  much  pleasure  could  be  derived  from  its  pursuit.  This 
conversation  made  Nuttall  a  botanist,  and  Barton  became  his 
friend  and  patron.  It  was  then  early  spring,  and  throughout 
the  season  of  flowers  he  took  frequent  rambles  over  the  neigh- 
bouring fields,  eagerly  gathering  specimens,  which  he  brought 
to  Barton,  studying  them  with  him  and  preparing  them  for  the 
herbarium.  Soon  he  began  to  extend  his  excursions,  going  first 
down  into  the  lower  part  of  the  peninsula  between  the  Dela- 
ware and  Chesapeake  Bays,  and  later  to  the  coasts  of  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina.  When  occupied  with  his  favourite  pur- 
suit, serious  discomfort  could  not  distract  him.  At  one  time, 
while  collecting  in  the  southern  swamps,  his  face  and  hands 
became  covered  with  mosquito  bites,  so  that  when  he  ap- 
proached a  human  habitation  the  people  of  the  house  would 


THOMAS   NUTTALL.  2O? 

not  at  first  admit  him,  believing  that  he  had  the  smallpox, 
and  it  was  with  great  difficulty  that  he  convinced  them  of  the 
contrary. 

Returning  from  this  trip,  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr. 
John  Bradbury,  a  Scotch  naturalist,  who  had  come  to  America 
to  collect  objects  of  natural  history  in  the  interior.  Nuttall 
eagerly  offered  to  accompany  Bradbury,  and  his  proposition 
was  accepted.  Proceeding  to  St.  Louis,  they  set  out  from  that 
city  on  the  last  day  of  December,  1809,  crossed  the  Kansas  and 
Platte  Rivers,  passed  through  the  Mandan  villages,  where 
Lewis  and  Clarke  had  spent  the  winter  of  i8o4-'o5,  and  as- 
cended the  Missouri  River  still  higher,  returning  after  an  ex- 
perience full  of  the  greatest  fatigues  and  dangers.  They  were 
pursued  and  robbed  by  the  Indians,  and  Bradbury,  who  was 
captured  by  them,  only  saved  himself  from  being  killed  by 
taking  his  watch  to  pieces  and  distributing  the  works  among 
them.  Nuttall,  overcome  by  fatigue  and  hunger  in  the  wilder- 
ness, laid  himself  down  to  die,  but  was  found  by  a  friendly  In- 
dian, who  took  him  in  his  canoe  down  the  Missouri  to  the  first 
settlement  of  white  men.  In  spite  of  these  misadventures,  he 
was  able  to  bring  with  him  on  his  return,  in  the  beginning 
of  1811,  ample  treasures  of  seeds,  plants,  minerals,  and  other 
natural  objects. 

For  the  next  eight  years  he  remained  in  Philadelphia,  dur- 
ing the  winter  months  studying  the  collections  made  by  him  in 
summer  excursions  to  various  parts  of  the  country  east  of  the 
Mississippi,  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  Florida.  Being  absorbed 
in  his  studies  and  naturally  reserved,  Nuttall's  social  inter- 
course was  limited.  The  families  of  the  botanists  and  horti- 
culturists of  the  time  in  Philadelphia — Prof.  Barton,  Zaccheus 
Collins,  Reuben  Haines,  McMahon,  from  whom  he  named  his 
genus  Mahonia^  William  Bartram,  and  Colonel  Carr — were 
almost  his  only  acquaintances.  To  these  he  made  visits,  often 
of  several  days,  from  time  to  time.  In  Colonel  Carr's  house  a 
room  was  expressly  reserved  for  him.  During  this  period  he 
prepared  also  the  descriptions  for  his  Genera  of  the  North 
American  Plants.  Upon  this  work,  which  appeared  in  1818, 
the  reputation  of  Mr.  Nuttall  as  a  botanist  principally  rests. 
Prof.  Torrey,  in  the  preface  to  his  Flora,  declared  that  it  had 
"contributed  more  than  any  other  work  to  the  advance  of  the 
accurate  knowledge  of  the  plants  of  this  country."  Nuttall 


208  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

turned  his  early  trade  to  account  by  setting  the  type  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  book. 

In  1817  Mr.  Nuttall,  already  a  Fellow  of  the  Linnsean  Society 
of  London,  was  elected  a  member  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society  at  the  same  meeting  with  Say  and  Schweinitz.  He 
was  made  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia  in  the  same  year,  and  began  to  pub- 
lish essays  in  the  journal  of  the  academy.  Among  his  earliest 
contributions  was  a  description  of  Collinsia,  a  new  genus  of 
plants,  named  in  honour  of  his  friend  and  patron,  Z.  Collins. 

Nuttall  had  long  desired  to  visit  the  Arkansas  country,  and 
soon  after  his  American  Plants  was  published  Messrs.  Correa 
de  Serra,  Z.  Collins,  William  Maclure,  and  John  Vaughan  pro- 
cured him  the  means  of  performing  this  long  journey.  Start- 
ing from  Philadelphia  on  October  2,  1818,  he  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  Arkansas  River  about  the  middle  of  January  and 
Port  Bellepoint  on  April  24th.  Thence  he  made  expeditions 
in  several  directions,  returning  with  abundant  collections.  He 
was  on  one  of  these  trips  in  the  middle  of  August,  when,  ex- 
hausted by  long  and  difficult  marches,  made  under  the  rays  of 
a  burning  sun  and  in  constant  dread  of  the  Indians,  having 
suffered  from  thirst,  insufficient  food,  and  exposure  to  the 
night  dews,  he  was  seized  with  a  violent  fever  among  the 
Osage  tribe.  The  Indians  robbed  him  of  his  effects  and  even 
threatened  his  life,  but  he  finally  reached  the  garrison  at  Belle- 
point,  where  he  remained  sick  until  the  middle  of  October. 
He  made  one  more  trip  and  then  set  out  for  home,  reaching 
New  Orleans  February  18,  1820.  He  had  then  in  sixteen 
months  made  a  journey  of  more  than  five  thousand  miles, 
mainly  over  a  country  never  visited  before  by  scientific  ex- 
plorers, and  still  in  the  undisputed  possession  of  the  Indians. 

Getting  back  to  Philadelphia  early  in  the  spring  of  1820,  he 
immediately  set  about  arranging  his  Arkansas  collections  and 
preparing  his  Journey  into  the  Interior  of  Arkansas  in  1818 
and  1819,  which  he  published  in  the  following  year.  In  the 
course  of  the  years  1820  to  1822  he  contributed  several 
memoirs  to  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Science, 
among  them  being  one  On  the  Serpentine  Rocks  of  Hoboken 
and  the  Minerals  which  they  Contain,  for  he  was  giving  some 
attention  to  mineralogy  at  this  time.  He  also  lectured  on 
botany  to  classes  of  young  men.  His  lecturing  was  not  re- 


THOMAS   NUTTALL.  2OQ 

markable  for  eloquence,  but  he  always  communicated  to  his 
pupils  something  of  his  own  passion  for  his  favourite 
science. 

At  the  end  of  1822  Mr.  Nuttall  was  called  to  Harvard  Col- 
lege. The  fund  of  the  college  for  a  professorship  of  natural 
history  not  being  sufficient  to  support  a  professor,  he  was  ap- 
pointed merely  Curator  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  and  but  light 
duties  of  instruction  were  assigned  to  him.  In  consequence 
the  greater  part  of  his  time  was  devoted  to  the  culture  of  rare 
plants  and  to*  his  own  studies,  in  which  mineralogy  and  orni- 
thology were  included.  In  Cambridge,  as  in  Philadelphia,  he 
led  a  retired  life. 

In  editing  the  Letters  of  Asa  Gray  Mrs.  Gray  remarks: 
"The  garden  was  laid  out  by  Dr.  Peck  in  1808,  and  the  house 
built  for  him  was  finished  in  1810.  Mr.  Nuttall,  the  botanist 
and  ornithologist,  who  boarded  in  it  while  giving  instruction 
in  botany,  left  some  curious  traces  behind  him.  He  was  very 
shy  of  intercourse  with  his  fellows,  and  having  for  his  study 
the  southeast  room,  and  the  one  above  for  his  bedroom,  put  in 
a  trapdoor  in  the  floor  of  an  upper  connecting  closet,  and  so 
by  a  ladder  could  pass  between  his  rooms  without  the  chance 
of  being  met  in  the  passage  or  on  the  stairs.  A  flap  hinged 
and  buttoned  in  the  door  between  the  lower  closet  and  the 
kitchen  allowed  his  meals  to  be  set  in  on  a  tray  without  the 
chance  of  his  being  seen.  A  window  he  cut  down  into  an  outer 
door,  and  with  a  small  gate  in  the  board  fence  surrounding  the 
garden,  of  which  he  alone  had  the  key,  he  could  pass  in  and 
out  safe  from  encountering  any  human  being." 

Aware  that  he  was  doing  little  for  science,  Mr.  Nuttall  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  his  position  at  Cambridge;  he  used  to 
say  that  he  was  only  vegetating,  like  his  own  plants.  Con- 
genial occupation  was  furnished  him  for  a  time  by  the  sug- 
gestion of  Mr.  James  Brown,  who  was  probably  his  only  inti- 
mate friend  in  Cambridge,  that  he  write  a.  book  on  ornithol- 
ogy. He  had  given  more  or  less  attention  to  this  science  dur- 
ing almost  the  whole  of  his  residence  in  America,  and  readily 
adopted  the  suggestion.  He  set  to  work  with  great  zeal,  and 
in  1832  produced  his  Manual  of  the  Ornithology  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  It  was  published  in  two  volumes  of  about 
six  hundred  pages  each  and  illustrated  with  excellent  wood- 
cuts. In  the  course  of  his  residence  at  Cambridge  he  contrib- 


210  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

uted  papers  to  the  various  scientific  periodicals  of  the  time,  and 
issued  a  little  book  entitled  An  Introduction  to  Systematic  and 
Physiological  Botany. 

About  the  beginning  of  1833  Mr.  Nuttall  went  to  Philadel- 
phia with  a  collection  of  plants  gathered  by  Captain  Wyeth 
during  a  journey  overland  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Captain 
Wyeth  was  soon  to  start  on  a  second  expedition,  to  establish 
posts  for  the  Columbia  Fishing  and  Trading  Company,  and 
Nuttall  wished  to  accompany  him.  Not  being  able  to  obtain 
a  sufficiently  long  leave  of  absence  from  Cambridge,  he  re- 
signed his  position  at  the  college  and  spent  the  interval  be- 
fore the  departure  of  the  expedition  in  Philadelphia  studying 
the  collection  already  referred  to  and  his  own  Arkansas  plants. 

Mr.  Nuttall  and  Mr.  John  K.  Townsend,  a  young  natural- 
ist sent  out  jointly  by  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  joined  Captain  Wyeth's  party 
at  Independence,  Mo.,  from  which  place  the  start  was  made 
April  28,  1834.  The  details  of  the  journey  are  given  in  Town- 
send's  Narrative  of  a  Journey  across  the  Rocky  Mountains 
to  the  Columbia  River,  etc.  On  September  3d  they  came  to 
the  Columbia,  and,  descending  it,  reached  Fort  Vancouver. 
Here  the  two  naturalists  remained  for  the  rest  of  the  autumn 
to  explore  the  surrounding  region.  Then  desiring  to  pass  the 
winter  months  where  inclemency  of  the  season  would  not  in- 
terfere with  their  pursuits,  they  took  passage  on  a  Boston  brig 
for  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  they  arrived  January  5, 

1835- 

Here  for  the  first  time  Mr.  Nuttall  enjoyed  the  beauties  of 

a  tropical  vegetation.  He  remained  two  months  collecting 
plants  and  seashells  on  the  several  islands,  and  then,  separat- 
ing from  his  companion,  sailed  for  California.  He  spent  a 
great  part  of  the  spring  and  summer  on  the  Pacific  coast,  then 
returned  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  he  embarked  on  a 
Boston  vessel  to  come  home  by  way  of  Cape  Horn.  It  hap- 
pened to  be  the  ship  on  which  Mr.  Dana  was  serving  his  "  two 
years  before  the  mast,"  and  the  latter  relates  in  his  book  that 
when  rounding  Cape  Horn  Nuttall's  passion  for  flowers  was 
aroused  by  the  near  view  of  land.  He  entreated  the  captain  to 
put  him  ashore,  if  only  for  a  few  hours,  that  he  might  become 
acquainted  with  the  vegetation  of  this  dreary  spot,  although 
the  wind  was  blowing  furiously  and  the  ship  was  surrounded 


THOMAS   NUTTALL.  2II 

with  icebergs.  When  his  persistent  requests  were  sternly 
refused  he  was  much  disappointed  and  displeased,  being 
unable  to  comprehend  such  indifference  to  the  cause  of 
science. 

He  arrived  in  October,  1835,  and  again  took  up  his  abode 
in  Philadelphia  to  work  up  the  rich  treasures  gathered  on  his 
long  journey.  For  several  years  he  and  Dr.  Pickering  worked 
harmoniously  together  at  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences — 
the  former  on  his  own  collections,  the  latter  on  the  Schweinitz 
herbarium.  Two  important  memoirs  based  upon  the  fruits  of 
the  trip  across  the  continent  were  published  about  1840  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society.  Con- 
chology  was  a  new  subject  of  study  to  Nuttall,  and  he  became 
much  absorbed  in  it.  He  did  not  trouble  himself  much  about 
his  meals  when  at  work,  and  Dr.  Pickering  would  often  return 
after  an  hour's  absence  from  the  academy  hall  in  the  middle 
of  the  day  and  find  him  stooping  over  a  case  of  shells  in  the 
same  place  and  position  as  when  he  left  him. 

Nuttall  was  a  remarkable  looking  man.  His  head  was  very 
large,  bald,  and  bore  the  signs  of  a  vigorous  intellect ;  his  fore- 
head was  expansive,  but  his  features  small,  and  his  gray  eyes 
looked  out  from  under  fleshy  brows.  His  complexion  was  fair, 
and  sometimes  very  pale  from  close  application  to  study  and 
lack  of  exercise.  He  was  above  medium  height,  his  person 
stout,  with  a  slight  stoop,  and  his  walk  peculiar  and  mincing, 
resembling  that  of  an  Indian. 

He  was  naturally  shy  and  reserved,  but,  if  silent  and  per- 
haps morose  in  the  presence  of  those  toward  whom  he  felt  no 
attraction,  yet  with  congenial  companions  he  was  communica- 
tive and  agreeable.  It  will  readily  be  surmised  that  his  devo- 
tion to  science  frequently  led  him  into  actions  that  were 
strangely  at  variance  with  the  circumstances  of  the  moment. 
In  one  of  his  solitary  digressions  in  the  wilderness  he  got  lost. 
The  party  he  was  with  resumed  its  march,  sending  out  some 
friendly  Indians  to  find  him  and  bring  him  to  rejoin  it.  The 
Indians  performed  their  duty  faithfully.  Looking  upon  him, 
however,  as  a  great  medicine  man,  they  were  afraid  to  come 
close  to  him,  so  they  surrounded  him,  keeping  at  a  respectful 
distance.  Nuttall  soon  became  aware  that  he  was  watched  by 
savages,  and,  not  knowing  whether  they  were  friends  or  foes, 
became  intensely  alarmed.  From  what  he  had  already  ex- 


212  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

perienced  at  their  hands  he  had  the  utmost  horror  of  Indians. 
Therefore  hiding  himself,  and  taking  advantage  of  every 
ravine,  every  tree  and  bush,  he  succeeded  in  regaining  the 
track  of  the  caravan,  which  he  followed  for  three  days  without 
food  or  sleep,  when,  to  his  infinite  delight,  he  overtook  it  and 
was  relieved  from  his  anxieties. 

On  another  occasion  he  was  rambling  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
camp  when  a  band  of  Indians,  apparently  hostile,  made  its  ap- 
pearance. The  alarm  was  immediately  given,  with  orders  to 
prepare  for  an  expected  attack.  Nuttall  was  nowhere  to  be 
seen,  and  a  friend  ran  in  search  of  him.  It  was  not  long 
before  he  perceived  the  naturalist  at  some  distance,  quietly 
examining  a  specimen.  He  hailed  him  with  signs  to  return 
quickly.  "  We  are  going  to  have  a  brush  with  the  Indians," 
said  his  friend  ;  "  is  your  gun  in  good  order  ?  "  Alas !  the  gun 
had  been  freely  used  to  uproot  plants,  and  was  filled  with  earth 
to  the  muzzle.  Had  Nuttall  fired  it  in  this  condition  it  would 
inevitably  have  burst  in  his  hands  and  killed  or  severely 
wounded  him. 

On  his  journey  to  the  Pacific  the  caravan  separated  into 
two  parties  to  cross  the  Rocky  Mountains  by  different  routes. 
One  of  the  parties  had  the  good  fortune  to  meet  with  plenty  of 
buffalo  cows,  upon  whose  meat  they  became  fat.  The  other, 
to  which  Nuttall  belonged,  suffered  much  from  fatigue,  and 
found  scarcely  anything  to  eat  except  a  few  lean  grizzly  bears. 
When  the  parties  reunited,  Nuttall  had  lost  so  much  flesh  that 
his  old  companions  could  scarcely  recognise  him.  Upon  one 
of  these  expressing  his  surprise  at  the  great  change  in  his  ap- 
pearance, he  heaved  a  sigh  of  inanition  and  retorted,  "  Yes, 
indeed,  you  would  have  been  just  as  thin  as  myself  if,  like  me, 
you  had  lived  for  two  weeks  upon  old  Ephraim  (grizzly  bear), 
and  on  short  allowance  of  that  too  !  " 

At  Christmas,  1841,  Nuttall  returned  to  England,  where  he 
resided  for  the  remaining  seventeen  years  of  his  life.  An  uncle 
who  had  prospered  in  business,  having  no  family  of  his  own, 
bequeathed  to  him  an  estate  called  Nutgrove,  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Liverpool.  A  condition  attached  to  the  bequest  was 
that  Nuttall  should  reside  in  England  at  least  nine  months  of 
the  year  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  He  had  been  thirty-four 
years  in  the  United  States  and  become  much  attached  to 
this  country,  so  that,  although  he  had  visited  England  in  1811 


THOMAS   NUTTALL. 

and  1822,  returning  to  reside  permanently  in  the  land  of  his 
birth  seemed  to  him  like  going  into  exile.  He  therefore  hesi- 
tated for  some  time  to  accept  the  inheritance,  but  considera- 
tion for  his  sisters  and  their  families  finally  induced  him  to 
take  it.  Becoming  a  British  landed  proprietor  did  not  make 
Mr.  Nuttall  wealthy.  The  Nutgrove  estate  was  encumbered 
with  annuities,  besides  which  there  was  a  heavy  income  tax  to 
pay.  Dr.  Pickering  and  other  American  friends  who  visited 
him  found  him  living  in  the  fashion  of  a  plain  farmer,  working 
and  eating  with  his  men  like  one  of  them.  But  his  interest  in 
botany  was  not  allowed  to  die  out.  He  made  use  of  the 
opportunity  which  the  possession  of  ample  grounds  afforded 
for  the  cultivation  of  rare  plants,  especially  rhododen- 
drons, which  his  nephew,  Mr.  Thomas  J.  Booth,  brought 
him  from  the  mountains  of  Assam  and  Butan.  Various 
new  species  of  these  were  described  by  him  in  British  scien- 
tific journals. 

Shortly  before  leaving  the  United  States  Nuttall  was  in- 
duced to  write  a  supplement  to  Michaux's  Sylva  in  three  vol- 
umes. In  the  beautifully  written  preface  to  the  work  his  own 
wanderings  are  vividly  sketched.  Owing  to  various  delays  the 
edition  was  not  issued  till  1846. 

Nuttall  returned  only  once  to  America.  As  he  could  not 
be  absent  more  than  three  months  in  any  one  year,  he  took  the 
last  three  months  of  1847  and  the  first  three  of  1848 — not  a 
very  desirable  season  for  a  botanist's  outing.  Nevertheless,  he 
managed  to  do  some  congenial  work.  He  studied  at  the  Phila- 
delphia Academy  the  plants  brought  by  Dr.  William  Gamble 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  Upper  California,  and  prepared 
a  paper  on  them  which  was  published  in  the  journal  of  the 
academy. 

His  death  occurred  on  September  10,  1859.  In  his  eager- 
ness to  open  a  case  of  plants  received  shortly  before  from  Mr. 
Booth  he  overstrained  himself,  and  from  that  time  steadily  de- 
clined until  he  died.  Through  his  love  of  Nature,  joined  with 
untiring  industry  and  great  firmness  of  purpose,  he  had  raised 
himself  from  the  condition  of  an  unknown  artisan  to  the  fore- 
most rank  of  American  men  of  science.  No  student  begins 
upon  the  study  of  systematic  botany  without  being  struck  by 
the  frequency  with  which  his  name  is  met.  His  friends  and 
colleagues,  Profs.  Torrey  and  Gray,  have  testified  to  their  ap- 


214  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE  IN   AMERICA. 

preciation  by  attaching  his  name  to  a  beautiful  genus  of  the 
Rosacea.  Elias  Durand  said  of  him  immediately  after  his 
death  :  "  No  other  explorer  of  the  botany  of  North  America 
has  personally  made  more  discoveries ;  no  writer  on  American 
plants,  except  perhaps  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  has  described  more  new 
genera  and  species." 


r Mr, MAS    SAY. 


THOMAS  SAY. 

1787-1834. 

Ac  ACT  we  torn  toward  l\miifliimi  aad  a  Quaker  family 
to  trace  the  extraction  of  an  American  pioneer  of  science. 

Thomas  Say,  the  father  of  American  entomology,  was  born 
in  Philadelphia,  July  27,  1787.  His  great-grandfather,  William 
Say,  was  an  early  Quaker  mfaw*  His  grandfather,  who  had 
the  same  name  as  the  naturalist,  followed  the  calling  of  an 
apothecary.  He  helped  to  found  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital, 
and  was  prominent  in  other  philanthropic  undertakings.  When 
a  young  man  he  supposed  that  he  visited  heaven  in  a  trance. 
An  account  of  this  vision  and  other  matters  was  published  by 
his  son,  Dr.  Benjamin  Say,  who  succeeded  him  in  the  apothe- 
cary business.  The  son  was  equally  public-spirited  with  his 
father.  In  1781,  the  year  after  taking  his  medical  degree,  his 
name  is  found  among  those  of  the  "  fighting  Quakers,"  who 
were  disowned  by  the  general  body  of  the  Friends  for  their  ac- 
tive sympathy  with  the  military  operations  of  the  colonists  in 
the  Revolution,  Dr.  Say  was  a  founder  of  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians, of  Philadelphia,  and  its  treasurer  for  eighteen  years. 
He  was  a  contributor  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  a  founder 
of  the  Pennsylvania  Prison  Society,  and  for  many  years  Presi- 
dent of  the  Humane  Society.  He  served  in  Congress  from  1808 
to  1811. 

The  naturalist  was  a  son  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Say  and  his  wife 
Anna,  daughter  of  Benjamin  Ronsall,  of  Kingsessing.  William 
Bartram  was  still  living  at  the  famous  botanic  garden  at  King- 
sessing during  Thomas  Say's  boyhood,  and  Thomas  with  other 
boys  was  enlisted  by  a  family  connection  in  gathering  natural 
curiosities  for  Bartram's  museum.  This  pursuit  young  Say 
found  very  congenial 

At  an  early  age  the  boy  was  placed  in  a  boarding  school 
under  the  control  of  the  Friends,  but  he  did  not  take  kindly  to 

m 


2i6  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  instruction  there  provided,  and  acquired  nothing  but  a 
most  intense  dislike  for  his  teachers  and  for  all  ordinary 
branches  of  study.  We  are  justified  in  ascribing  this  antipathy 
on  his  part  to  the  incompetency  of  the  instructors,  for  in 
after  years  Say  showed  an  ability  and  a  desire  to  learn  which 
only  the  most  repressing  circumstances  could  have  checked  in 
his  youth.  As  he  had  no  predilection  for  any  of  the  learned 
professions,  young  Say,  after  leaving  school,  was  placed  for  a 
time  behind  the  counter  of  his  father's  shop.  After  he  had 
acquired  some  knowledge  of  the  drug  business,  his  father 
established  him  in  trade  with  John  Speakman.  Through 
Speakman,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences of  Philadelphia,  Say  was  induced  to  join  the  society,  and 
with  this  act  he  began  a  life  of  science  which  has  left  its  im- 
press on  every  branch  of  natural  history. 

The  academy  was  founded  early  in  1812,  and  Say,  who  was 
elected  to  membership  in  April  of  that  year,  was  enrolled  as 
one  of  the  founders  by  a  vote  of  the  society.  His  first  at- 
tendance at  a  meeting  was  on  April  i6th.  What  was  his  sur- 
prise, on  entering  the  temple  of  science,  to  find  the  whole  col- 
lection of  specimens  consisting  of  "  some  half  a  dozen  common 
insects,  a  few  madrepores  and  shells,  a  dried  toadfish,  and  a 
stuffed  monkey ! — a  display  of  objects  of  science  calculated 
rather  to  excite  merriment  than  to  procure  respect."  In  fact, 
the  academy  was  largely  a  social  organization.  This  is  shown 
by  its  first  constitution,  the  preamble  of  which  recites  that,  "  con- 
sidering that  the  expense  of  obtaining  and  preserving  in  a 
suitable  place  and  conveniently  for  perusal  and  use  the  many 
important  periodical  publications  and  scientific  papers  of  the 
lettered  world,  with  the  requisite  collections  and  apparatus  for 
repeating  notable  experiences  and  following  up  in  due  series 
experiments  for  the  elucidation  of  remarkable  physical  truths, 
an  expense  that  esocietarily  might  demand  the  fortune  of  a 
prince,  but  which  in  a  society  where  gratuitously  many  are 
capable  of  rendering  to  the  general  interest  without  injury  to 
their  professional  distribution  of  time  essential  services,  and 
many  competent  to  fill  indispensable  offices  without  detriment 
to  their  private  concerns,  may  be  defrayed  by  a  most  trifling 
pecuniary  contribution,"  they  had  determined  to  establish  this 
society.  With  the  advent  of  Say  to  membership  this  was 
soon  changed,  and  the  academy  took  its  place  among  the 


THOMAS   SAY. 


217 


scientific  bodies  of  the  world,  a  place  which  it  has  since 
occupied. 

Long  before  entering  the  academy,  Say  had  acquired  a 
familiarity  with  the  forms  of  beetles  and  butterflies,  but  without 
reducing  his  knowledge  to  systematic  order.  Now,  on  joining 
a  scientific  society,  he  began  those  investigations  on  the  Amer- 
ican fauna  which  only  ceased  with  his  death.  In  the  second 
year  of  his  membership  he  gave  a  series  of  original  lectures  on 
the  elements  of  entomology.  His  partner,  Speakman,  fully 
sympathized  with  his  passion  for  Nature,  and  willingly  did  the 
labour  of  both  in  the  shop,  so  that  Say  might  devote  all  his  time 
and  energies  to  his  favourite  studies.  However,  this  com- 
fortable arrangement  did  not  last  long. 

"  Through  indorsement  for  unfortunate  friends,"  says  Dr. 
Ruschenberger,  in  his  Notice  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences, "  the  firm  and  business  of  Speakman  &  Say  were  at  an 
end ;  and  it  is  related  of  these  servants  of  science  that  they 
retained  scarcely  anything  for  themselves  ;  and  that  Mr.  Say 
gave  to  those  to  whom  they  had  become  debtors  by  indorse- 
ment the  contents  of  his  pocketbook  and  even  the  loose 
change  in  his  purse.  After  this  he  resided  in  the  hall  of  the 
academy,  where  he  made  his  bed  under  the  skeleton  of  a  horse, 
and  fed  himself  on  bread  and  milk  ;  occasionally  he  cooked  a 
chop  or  boiled  an  egg;  but  he  was  wont  to  regard  eating  as  an 
inconvenient  interruption  to  scientific  pursuits,  and  often  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  he  had  been  made  with  a  hole  in  his  side  in 
which  he  might  deposit,  from  time  to  time,  the  quantity  of 
food  requisite  for  his  nourishment.  He  lived  in  this  manner 
several  years,  during  which  time  his  food  did  not  cost,  on 
an  average,  more  than  twelve  cents  a  day."  Had  he,  like 
Thoreau,  given  an  account  of  his  life  at  this  time,  it  would 
have  been  a  highly  interesting  chapter. 

In  1816  he  projected  a  work  on  American  entomology,  and 
in  the  next  year  six  plates  and  the  accompanying  text  were 
printed,  but,  from  a  lack  of  proper  pecuniary  support,  the 
project  for  the  time  fell  through,  and  the  work  was  not  prop- 
erly published  until  a  later  date.  In  1817  William  Maclure 
was  elected  president  of  the  academy.  Through  his  efforts  and 
those  of  several  other  men  of  influence  and  property  who  had 
joined  the  society,  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences of  Philadelphia  was  started,  and  Say  began  his  long 
15 


2i8  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

series  of  contributions  to  knowledge.  No  complete  list  of  his 
papers  has  been  published,  but  the  number  aggregates  nearly 
one  hundred. 

In  1818  Say,  in  company  with  William  Maclure,  George 
Ord,  and  Titian  R.  Peale,  visited  Georgia  and  Florida  on  a 
collecting  expedition,  and  in  the  next  year  Say  received  an 
appointment  as  naturalist  on  Long's  expedition  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  with  Peale  as  an  assistant.  Long's  expedition  left 
Pittsburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  May,  on  a  steamboat  built  for  the 
purpose,  and  proceeded  as  far  as  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  where 
they  spent  the  winter.  During  the  next  year  they  went  to  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and,  returning  toy  another  route,  broke  up 
at  Cape  Girardeau,  Missouri,  in  November.  Say  appears  to 
have  been  unfortunate  on  this  expedition.  At  one  time  he 
was  in  charge  of  a  party  of  five,  making  a  trip  on  foot,  when 
the  packhorse  broke  loose,  and  they  lost  both  horse  and  bag- 
gage. Later,  in  charge  of  another  party,  he  fell  in  with  a 
number  of  Kansas  Indians,  and  again  lost  horses,  baggage, 
and  camp  equipments.  The  narrative  of  Long's  expedition 
was  published  in  two  octavo  volumes  and  folio  atlas  (Philadel- 
phia, 1823),  and  some  of  Say's  descriptions  of  the  animals  and 
"  animal  remains  found  in  a  concrete  state  "  were  given  in  foot- 
notes scattered  through  both  volumes. 

After  the  disruption  of  the  party,  Say,  in  company  with  one 
or  two  others,  went  to  New  Orleans,  and  soon  returned  to 
Philadelphia.  His  next  journey  was  with  Long's  second  expe- 
dition, which  explored  the  sources  of  the  Mississippi  River; 
but,  with  the  exception  vof  this  and  one  or  two  minor  trips, 
the  next  few  years  were  spent  in  Philadelphia.  His  share  in 
Long's  two  expeditions  included,  besides  his  own  specialty, 
various  matters  having  little  or  no  connection  with  this.  He 
was  the  historian  of  all  classes  of  facts  collected  by  the  detach- 
ments under  his  command ;  in  the  second  expedition  he  made 
the  whole  of  the  botanical  collection  ;  and,  although  not  a 
philologist,  he  obtained  the  vocabulary  of  the  Killisteno  lan- 
guage. 

In  1825  Say  left  his  native  city,  never  to  return.  William 
Maclure,  who  was  a  man  of  wealth  and  refinement,  but  con- 
siderably eccentric  withal,  had  an  idea  that  the  "  community 
system  "  was  the  true  way  of  living,  and,  unlike  some  other 
dreamers,  he  proceeded  to  put  his  plans  into  execution.  He 


THOMAS   SAY. 


219 


joined  Robert  Owen  in  his  famous  scheme,  a  large  tract  of 
land  was  purchased  at  New  Harmony,  Indiana,  and  there  the 
community  was  started.  His  plan  included  a  college  of  sci- 
ence in  which  Say  was  to  be  one  of  the  instructors.  Num- 
bers of  people,  influenced  by  the  arguments  of  the  projectors 
and  the  glowing  accounts  of  the  happy  life  to  be  led  by  a 
people  possessing  all  things  in  common  and  working  for  a 
common  good,  removed  themselves  and  theirs  to  this  mod- 
ern Utopia.  The  community,  however,  did  not  prosper;  in- 
ternal dissensions,  as  might  have  been  expected,  sprang  up, 
and  the  aid  of  the  courts  was  invoked.  Maclure,  utterly  dis- 
gusted, went  to  Mexico,  and  left  Say  at  New  Harmony  as  his 
agent,  to  attend  to  the  settling  of  the  affairs  of  the  community. 
This  was  not  an  agreeable  task,  but,  without  other  means  of 
support,  Say  was  obliged  to  accept,  and  continued  in  this  posi- 
tion until  his  death.  This  stay  at  New  Harmony  was  not  a 
period  of  scientific  idleness  on  the  part  of  Say,  as  the  numer- 
ous contributions  which  proceeded  from  his  pen  attest.  Say's 
maltreatment  of  his  stomach  was  continued  in  the  West,  and 
doubtless  weakened  his  constitution.  In  one  of  Maclure's  let- 
ters has  been  found  the  statement  that  for  a  considerable  time 
these  two  men  lived  on  six  cents  a  day  each. 

At  his  death  his  collections  and  library  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  Philadelphia  Academy.  The  insects  were  sub- 
mitted to  another  entomologist  for  arrangement,  but  through 
an  unpardonable  neglect  were  allowed  to  go  to  complete  ruin 
before  their  return  to  the  academy,  and  the  types  of  hundreds 
of  species  were  thus  irrevocably  lost.  The  remainder  of  his 
type  specimens  are  as  religiously  preserved  with  his  own  labels 
as  are  those  of  Linne"  and  Fabricius  in  London,  or  of  Herbst  in 
Berlin.  The  number  of  new  species  which  Say  described  has 
probably  never  been  exceeded,  except  in  the  cases  of  those 
two  exceedingly  careless  workers,  John  Edward  Gray  and 
Francis  Walker,  of  the  British  Museum.  There  is  this  in  Say's 
favour,  which  can  not  be  said  of  the  two  just  mentioned,  that 
his  descriptions  are,  almost  without  exception,  easily  recog- 
nised, and  almost  every  form  which  he  described  is  now  well 
known.  Working  as  he  did  without  books,  and  without  that 
traditional  knowledge  which  obtains  among  the  Continental 
workers,  it  was  unavoidable  that  he  should  redescribe  forms 
which  were  known  before ;  but,  owing  to  the  clear  insight  he 


220  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

possessed,  and  the  discrimination  he  exercised  in  selecting  the 
important  features  of  the  form  before  him,  his  work  has  never 
caused  that  confusion  in  synonymy  which  many  in  much  more 
favourable  circumstances  have  produced. 

Say's  work  was  almost  wholly  the  scientific  description  of 
the  forms  which  came  under  his  eye,  and  there  is  scarcely  any- 
thing in  his  writings  concerning  the  habits  of  animals,  or  which 
appeals  in  the  slightest  to  the  popular  taste.  Having  been 
intolerant  of  literary  studies  in  his  youth,  he  never  attained 
to  a  happy  command  of  language.  An  extract  from  his  Amer- 
ican Entomology  will  illustrate  this :  "  During  the  progress 
of  Major  Long's  expedition  up  the  Missouri,  that  enterprising 
and  excellent  officer  intrusted  me  with  the  direction  of  a  small 
party  of  thirteen  persons,  destined  to  explore  the  country  on 
the  south  side  of  that  extended  river.  After  encountering 
many  obstacles  and  privations,  which  it  is  unnecessary  to  enu- 
merate, the  party  arrived  at  the  village  of  the  Konza  Indians, 
hungry,  fatigued,  and  out  of  health.  Commiserating  our  situ- 
ation, these  sons  of  Nature,  although  suffering  under  the  injus- 
tice of  white  people,  received  us  with  their  characteristic  hos- 
pitality, and  ameliorated  our  condition  by  the  luxuries  of  re- 
pletion and  repose.  Whilst  sitting  in  the  large  earth-covered 
dwelling  of  the  principal  chief,  in  presence  of  several  hundred 
of  his  people,  assembled  to  view  the  arms,  equipments,  and 
appearance  of  our  party,  I  enjoyed  the  additional  gratification 
to  see  an  individual  of  this  fine  species  of  Blaps  running 
toward  us  from  the  feet  of  the  crowd.  The  act  of  impaling 
this  unlucky  fugitive  at  once  conferred  upon  me  the  respectful 
and  mystic  title  of  '  medicine  man  '  from  the  superstitious  faith 
of  that  simple  people." 

Say's  two  principal  works,  published  separately,  were  his 
American  Entomology  in  three  volumes  (Philadelphia,  1824- 
1828),  with  fifty-four  coloured  plates ;  and  his  American  Con- 
chology,  of  which  only  six  parts  appeared  previous  to  his  death. 
Two  volumes  of  the  former  appeared  before  the  author  went 
to  New  Harmony  and  a  third  volume  three  years  after;  it  was 
then  left  uncompleted.  The  work  on  entomology  was  a  credit 
to  himself  and  to  the  printer,  while  almost  the  only  merit  pos- 
sessed by  the  latter  work  was  the  fine  plates  from  the  pencil 
of  Mrs.  Say.  Mr.  Say's  other  published  papers  will  be  found 
in  the  Journal  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Phila- 


THOMAS   SAY.  221 

delphia,  Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
Maclurean  Lyceum,  Nicholson's  Encyclopaedia,  American  Jour- 
nal of  Science  and  Art,  Western  Quarterly  Reporter,  reports 
of  Long's  expeditions,  and  several  papers  which  were  published 
separately  at  New  Harmony.  His  entomological  papers  have 
been  collected  and  reprinted,  with  annotations,  by  Dr.  John  L. 
Le  Conte,  in  two  octavo  volumes  (New  York,  1869).  He  was  a 
foreign  member  of  two  English  learned  societies — the  Linnaean 
and  the  Zoological. 

Besides  the  work  which  appears  in  connection  with  his  own 
name,  almost  all  of  the  publications  of  Prince  Charles  Lucien 
Bonaparte,  while  in  America,  were  corrected  and  arranged  for 
the  press  by  Say.  This  and  other  work  made  such  calls  upon 
his  time  that  nearly  all  of  his  own  work  was  the  product  of  the 
midnight  hours;  and  this,  in  connection  with  his  wicked  disre- 
gard of  the  demands  of  his  stomach,  so  undermined  his  con- 
stitution that,  when  attacked  by  a  fever  in  his  Western  home, 
he  had  not  the  strength  to  rally,  and  on  October  10,  1834,  he 
passed  away. 

According  to  the  testimony  of  all  who  knew  him,  Mr.  Say 
was  a  most  pleasant  and  agreeable  companion,  a  thorough 
student,  and  a  man  of  the  most  unpretentious  manner.  Al- 
ways ready  to  assist  a  friend,  his  stores  of  knowledge  were 
freely  opened  to  those  who  asked,  and  information  was  cheer- 
fully granted  to  all  inquirers.  He  was  tall  and  spare  of  habit, 
somewhat  muscular,  with  a  dark  complexion,  and  black  hair. 
Two  portraits  in  oil  in  the  possession  of  the  academy  repre- 
sent a  face  of  more  than  average  attractiveness.  While  at 
New  Harmony  he  married  Miss  Lucy  W.  Sistare,  of  New  York, 
who  survived  him.  She  was  a  highly  cultured  woman  and  an 
excellent  artist.  She  had  the  distinction  of  being  the  first 
woman  ever  admitted  to  membership  in  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  although  many  have  been 
elected  since. 

A  marked  feature  of  Say's  character  was  his  modesty, 
which  was  almost  excessive.  It  led  to  habits  of  retirement 
and  in  some  respects  unfitted  him  for  the  intercourse  of  gen- 
eral society.  His  distrust  of  his  own  powers  was  a  perpetual 
barrier  to  material  advancement.  He  declined  a  professor- 
ship of  natural  history  on  the  plea  that  he  would  not  be  able 
to  lecture  satisfactorily.  WThen  Dr.  Baldwin,  the  botanist  and 


222  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

historian  of  Major  Long's  first  expedition,  died,  Say  refused 
the  opportunity,  which  his  commander  offered  him,  of  continu- 
ing the  journal  of  the  expedition,  alleging  that  he  was  incom- 
petent for  this  responsible  employment.  His  sister  and  step- 
mother, who  survived  him,  bore  strong  testimony  to  his  do- 
mestic virtues.  The  soul  of  honour  himself,  he  had  the  strong- 
est aversion  to  deceit  or  dishonesty  in  others,  yet  he  had  so 
little  insight  into  character  that  the  most  barefaced  impostor 
would  have  little  difficulty  in  securing  his  confidence. 


WILLIAM   CRANCH   BOND. 


WILLIAM   CRANCH    BOND. 

1789-1859. 

IN  seconding  the  obituary  resolutions  of  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  on  the  first  director  of  the  Har- 
vard College  Observatory,  ex-President  Quincy  used  these 
words :  "  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  extent  of  his 
knowledge,  the  winning  urbanity  of  his  manners,  and  his  ex- 
emplary exactness  in  life  and  as  an  observer,  in  a  great  de- 
gree effected  the  attainment  of  those  large  means  and  increased 
powers  which  ultimately  raised  to  its  present  prosperous  state 
the  observatory  over  which  through  subsequent  life  he  watched, 
and  which  he  left  at  death  honoured  and  improved  by  his 
labours  and  genius."  Let  us  briefly  trace  the  career  which 
could  deserve  such  a  testimonial. 

William  Cranch  Bond  was  born  in  Portland,  Me.,  Septem- 
ber 9,  1789,  being  the  youngest  son  in  a  family  of  several  chil- 
dren. His  parents,  Hannah  (Cranch)  and  William  Bond,  were 
natives  of  England  and  were  married  there.  The  Bond  family 
can  be  traced  to  the  time  of  William  the  Conqueror,  by  whom 
Brandon  Manor  is  said  to  have  been  granted  to  the  contem- 
porary ancestor  of  that  line.  William  Bond  was  born  in  Plym- 
outh, and  became  a  clockmaker  and  silversmith.  Having  been 
induced  to  emigrate  to  America,  he  located  at  Portland,  then 
called  Falmouth,  and  engaged  in  cutting  ship  timber  which  he 
sent  to  England.  In  a  short  time  he  brought  over  his  family, 
but  the  timber  business  not  proving  successful,  he  removed  to 
Boston  in  1793  and  took  up  again  his  former  occupation.  His 
shop  stood  on  one  of  the  two  corners  of  Milk  and  Marlboro 
(now  Washington)  Streets,  the  other  being  occupied  by  the  Old 
South  Church.  William  C.  Bond  was  then  a  Boston  boy  from 
the  age  of  four  years.  He  had  little  opportunity  to  attend 
school,  for  the  circumstances  of  the  family,  as  he  afterward 
told  Josiah  Quincy,  "  obliged  me  to  become  an  apprentice  to 


224 


PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE    IN    AMERICA. 


my  father  before  I  had  learned  the  multiplication  table."  But, 
judging  from  his  later  achievements,  young  William  must  have 
been  the  kind  of  boy  that  picks  up  knowledge,  so  his  lack  of 
set  schooling  was  not  so  great  a  misfortune  as  it  might 
seem. 

His  eldest  sister  described  him  as  having  been,  at  the  age 
of  fourteen,  "  a  slender  boy  with  soft  gray  eyes  and  silky  brown 
hair,  quick  to  observe,  yet  shrinking  from  notice,  and  sensi- 
tive to  excess."  She  adds,  in  reference  to  his  early  developed 
tastes :  "  The  first  that  I  remember  was  his  intense  anxiety 
about  the  expected  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  of  June  16,  1806. 
He  had  then  no  instrument  of  his  own,  but  watched  the  event 
from  a  house  top  on  Summer  Street  through  a  telescope  be- 
longing to  Mr.  Francis  Gray,  to  which  somehow  he  got  access. 
In  so  doing  he  injured  his  eyes,  and  for  a  long  time  was  troubled 
in  his  vision." 

An  elder  brother  writes  of  him  at  this  early  period,  "  He 
was  the  mildest  and  best-tempered  boy  I  ever  knew,  and  his 
remarkable  mechanical  genius  showed  itself  very  early."  He 
adds  that  in  devising  and  making  bits  of  apparatus  that  boys 
use  in  their  sports,  William  was  chief  among  his  comrades. 
Before  he  was  fifteen  years  old  he  had  constructed  at  odd 
times  a  reliable  shop  chronometer.  He  had  no  model  to  go 
by,  but  made  it  after  a  description  of  an  instrument  used  by 
La  Perouse,  the  navigator,  which  he  had  found  in  an  old 
French  book.  Not  having  a  suitable  spring  to  put  into  it,  he 
contrived  to  run  it  by  weights.  About  a  year  later  he  made 
a  good  working  quadrant  out  of  ebony  and  boxwood,  the  best 
materials  he  had.  His  son,  George  Phillips  Bond,  has  thus 
described  this  instrument :  "  It  is  no  rude  affair,  but  every 
part,  especially  the  graduation,  the  most  difficult  of  all,  shows 
the  neatness,  patience,  and  accuracy  of  a  practised  artist.  A 
better  witness  to  the  progress  he  had  already  made  in  astron- 
omy could  not  be  desired.  It  is  all  that  the  materials  would 
admit  of,  and  proves  that  he  must  have  been,  even  then,  irrev- 
ocably devoted  to  astronomy." 

About  the  time  he  became  of  age  his  father  took  him  into 
partnership,  and  the  clock-making  business  was  expanded  to 
include  the  rating,  repairing,  and  making  of  chronometers. 
The  first  seagoing  chronometer  constructed  in  America  was 
made  by  him  in  1812.  It  at  once  went  into  service,  and  satis- 


WILLIAM   CRANCH   BOND. 


225 


factorily  stood  the  test  of  a  voyage  to  and  from  the  East  Indies. 
In  1810  the  Bonds  removed  their  business  to  Congress  Street, 
and  the  family  took  up  its  abode  in  Dorchester. 

Mr.  Bond  regarded  his  watching  of  the  eclipse  when  he  was 
seventeen  years  of  age  as  the  event  that  determined  his  pur- 
suit of  astronomy.  Certain  it  is  that  he  never  afterward  aban- 
doned it.  Five  years  later  he  came  under  the  notice  of  older 
astronomers,  and  in  this  way :  Prof.  John  Farrar,  of  Harvard 
College,  having  caught  sight  of  a  comet  on  September  4,  1811, 
watched  its  subsequent  progress  and  published  a  paper  on  it  in 
the  memoirs  of  the  American  Academy.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bow- 
ditch,  of  Salem,  to  whom  he  communicated  this  discovery,  did 
the  same,  and  the  comet  was  watched  also  by  others.  Before 
presenting  his  paper  to  the  academy,  Prof.  Farrar  learned  that 
young  Bond  had  seen  the  comet  in  the  preceding  April.  He 
mentioned  this  fact  in  the  account  of  his  own  observations  and 
added  the  following  notes,  with  which,  he  says,  Mr.  Bond  had 
"  obligingly  favoured  "  him  : 

"I  remarked  on  the  2ist  of  April  a  faint,  whitish  light  near 
the  constellation  Canis  Major  projecting  a  tail  about  one  de- 
gree in  length,  and  set  down  its  place  as  follows :  right  ascen- 
sion, 106°;  declination,  7°  or  8°  south.  Its  motion  and  the 
situation  of  its  tail  convinced  me  that  it  was  a  comet.  I  noticed 
it  several  times  in  May,  and  supposed  that  its  motion  was 
toward  the  western  part  of  the  constellation  Leo."* 

These  observations  on  the  comet  brought  the  young  chro- 
nometer-maker the  acquaintance  of  scientific  men  and  facili- 
ties for  his  favourite  pursuit.  Up  to  this  time  his  observations 
had  been  made  with  the  rudest  appliances.  The  elder  brother 
already  quoted  says  of  these  early  days  :  "  I  suppose  it  would 
cause  the  astronomer  royal  to  laugh  could  he  see  the  first 
transit  instrument  used  by  us  at  Dorchester — a  strip  of  brass 
nailed  to  the  east  end  of  the  house,  with  a  hole  in  it  to  see  a 
fixed  star  and  note  its  transit;  this  in  1813.  When  we  moved 
into  the  Hawes  house,  he  procured  a  good  granite  block ;  we 
dug  a  deep  hole  and  placed  it  at  the  west  end  of  the  house, 


*  Much  of  the  material  here  employed  is  derived  from  a  historical  sketch 
of  the  Harvard  College  Observatory,  prepared  by  Mr.  Daniel  W.  Baker,  which 
first  appeared  as  a  series  of  newspaper  articles,  and  was  afterward  reprinted  in 
pamphlet  form  as  one  of  the  official  publications  of  the  observatory. 


226  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

and  got  Mr.  Alger  to  cast  a  stand  for  the  transit  instrument, 
a  small  one,  which  I  think  belonged  to  Harvard  College.  From 
this  time  he  began  to  live  among  the  stars." 

Bond's  sister  also  gives  an  account  of  the  setting  up  of  the 
first  telescope  used  by  him  at  Dorchester,  and  says  that  through 
it  could  be  seen  the  satellites  of  Jupiter  and  the  rings  of  Saturn. 
She  adds  that  in  the  pursuit  of  astronomy  "  he  had  had  no 
assistance  whatever,  except  from  the  genial  kindness  of  Hon. 
Josiah  Quincy,  who  had  early  recognised  the  future  astronomer 
in  the  unpretending  boy  in  the  watchmaker's  shop  on  Congress 
Street,  and  whose  kindness  and  encouragement  never  failed 
throughout  the  subsequent  years." 

The  obstacles  in  the  path  of  the  young  astronomer  were 
now  rapidly  removed.  The  leading  men  of  science  in  Boston 
and  vicinity  gave  him  their  aid  and  counsel.  "  He  has  men- 
tioned," writes  his  son,  "  the  names  of  Dr.  Nathaniel  Bowditch, 
Prof.  Farrar,  and  Tutor  Clapp  as  those  from  whom  he  received 
most  encouragement  to  continue  the  cultivation  of  astronomy. 
Upon  his  friendly  intercourse  with  the  eminent  mathematician 
and  astronomer  first  named  he  often  dwelt  with  peculiar  pleas- 
ure and  warmth  of  feeling." 

Although  instruction  in  astronomy  had  been  given  and 
astronomical  observations  had  been  made  by  the  Professor  of 
Natural  Philosophy  at  Harvard  for  a  century  or  more,  the  col- 
lege had  not  as  yet  been  able  to  erect  an  observatory.  In  1805 
John  Lowell,  uncle  of  the  founder  of  the  Lowell  Institute,  had 
obtained  from  Delambre  in  Paris  advice  as  to  a  building  and 
its  equipment.  But  nothing  further  was  done  at  that  time. 
Ten  years  later  the 'college  authorities  took  up  the  subject 
anew  and  appointed  a  committee  to  form  a  plan  for  an  observ- 
atory. Mr.  Bond  was  then  about  to  make  a  trip  to  England, 
and  his  friends  Farrar  and  Bowditch  procured  for  him  a  com- 
mission as  agent  of  the  college  to  obtain  information  as  to  the 
construction  and  instrumental  equipment  of  the  observatory 
at  Greenwich,  and  to  make  such  drawings  as  would  be  needed 
in  constructing  an  observatory  for  the  college.  He  was  re- 
quested also  to  obtain  from  the  makers  the  prices  of  instru- 
ments like  the  principal  ones  used  at  Greenwich.  "  He  per- 
formed the  service,"  says  the  writer  of  the  sketch  above  re- 
ferred to,  "  and  reported  in  detail  in  the  following  year.  That 
nothing  practical  came  of  iff  or  a  quarter  of  a  century  was  not 


WILLIAM   CRANCH   BOND. 


227 


owing  to  the  will  but,  comparatively  speaking,  to  the  poverty 
of  the  college. 

"  This  result  followed,  however,  that,  upon  his  return,  Mr. 
Bond  constructed  the  model  of  an  astronomical  dome,  the 
operative  plan  of  which  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  great  dome 
built  in  1844,  and  which  has  been  in  satisfactory  use  at  Cam- 
bridge to  the  present  time.  The  chief  peculiarity  of  its 
mechanism  is  in  the  method  of  rotation  by  means  of  smoothly 
turned  spheres  of  iron.  The  dome  rests  on  these  at  equidis- 
tant points,  and,  being  set  in  motion  by  suitable  gearing,  the 
iron  balls  sustaining  its  weight  roll  along  a  level,  circular  track 
of  iron,  the  circumference  of  which  is  equal  to  that  of  the 
dome.  The  method  was  unlike  that  previously  in  use.  It  ap- 
pears to  have  been  original  with  Mr.  Bond,  as  is  perhaps 
evinced  by  a  remark  in  his  report  for  1848  referring  to  the 
matter :  *  If  carefully  examnied,  it  will  be  found  that  this 
arrangement  is  as  perfect  in  theory  as  it  is  appropriate  and 
convenient  in  practice.'  Experience  has  shown  that  spheres 
of  hard  bronze  are  more  serviceable  than  those  of  iron,  and 
bronze  is  now  used." 

While  Mr.  Bond  was  abroad,  he  married,  July  18,  1819,  his 
cousin,  Selina  Cranch,  of  Kingsbridge,  in  Devonshire.  Return- 
ing home,  he  went  to  live  in  Dorchester  near  his  father's  resi- 
dence in  a  house  which  he  bought.  On  these  premises  he 
erected,  about  1823,  a  small  wooden  building  which  he  care- 
fully equipped  for  astronomical  observations.  This  building 
is  the  one  mentioned  in  the  official  reference  to  the  "  observa- 
tory at  Dorchester  "  found  in  various  publications.  Its  posi- 
tion, as  given,by  Mr.  Bond  in  1833,  was  o°  3'  15*  east  of  Har- 
vard Hall  in  Cambridge. 

Mr.  Bond  now  advanced  rapidly  in  his  favourite  pursuit. 
"As  soon  as  his  circumstances  permitted,"  writes  his  son,  "he 
imported  more  perfect  apparatus  from  Europe,  and  continued 
to  add  to  his  collection  until  it  was  the  best  in  the  country." 
In  his  little  observatory  "no  eclipse  or  occultation  escaped 
him,  though  occupied  in  business  during  the  day  in  Boston." 
After  gathering  for  several  years  materials  for  investigating 
the  comparative  rates  of  chronometers  at  sea  and  on  shore,  he 
presented  a  paper  to  the  American  Academy  in  which  he 
effectually  disposed  of  the  scientific  question  involved,  so  far 
as  it  related  to  the  interests  of  navigation.  Mr.  G.  P.  Bond, 


228  PIONEERS   OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

who  records  this,  states  that  his  father  investigated  also  the 
influence  of  changes  of  temperature  in  the  presence  of  large 
surfaces  of  iron  upon  the  performance  of  chronometers,  and, 
"although  the  conclusions  arrived  at  were  at  variance  with  the 
opinions  of  men  high  in  authority  in  such  matters,  they  are 
now  known  to  be  correct." 

About  this  time  the  Navy  Department  sent  out  the  Wilkes 
Exploring  Expedition,  the  purpose  of  which  in  part  was  to 
establish  the  latitudes  and  longitudes  of  uncharted  places  in 
distant  parts  of  the  world  where  American  commerce  was  ex- 
tending, and  in  part  to  investigate  natural  phenomena,  includ- 
ing the  facts  of  terrestrial  magnetism.  In  connection  with 
this  expedition,  Mr.  Bond  was  engaged  to  make  at  his  private 
observatory  investigations  to  fix  a  zero  of  longitude,  whence 
final  reference  to  Greenwich  might  be  had,  and  to  make  a  con- 
tinuous record  of  magnetic  observations  at  Dorchester  for 
comparison  with  like  records  obtained  at  distant  points  by  the 
expedition  itself.  As  preliminary  to  the  latter  work  Mr.  Bond 
tested  the  magnetic  instruments  with  which  the  expedition  was 
to  be  equipped. 

Josiah  Quincy,  who  had  given  Mr.  Bond  early  encourage- 
ment, was  now  President  of  Harvard  College.  It  occurred  to 
him,  to  use  his  own  words,  "  that  if  Mr.  Bond  could  be  induced 
to  transfer  his  apparatus  and  residence  to  Cambridge  and  pur- 
sue his  observations  there,  under  the  auspices  of  the  university, 
it  would  have  an  important  influence  in  clearing  the  way  for 
the  establishment  of  an  efficient  observatory  in  connection  with 
that  seminary." 

There  was  little  inducement  for  Mr.  Bond  to  make  the 
change.  His  business  was  prosperous  and  his  home  life  among 
friends  and  neighbours  whom  he  had  known  for  years  was  very 
pleasant.  The  college  could  offer  him  no  salary — only  the 
use  of  a  house.  In  his  excessive  modesty  he  feared  that  the 
arrangement  proposed  would  arouse  great  expectations  that  he 
with  the  facilities  at  his  command  would  be  unable  to  satisfy. 
He  made  other  objections,  but  all  were  overcome,  and  on  No- 
vember 30,  1839,  he  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  college 
corporation,  agreeing  to  make  the  transfer  as  proposed.  A 
subscription  was  at  once  raised  for  fitting  up  a  dwelling  owned 
by  the  college  to  be  occupied  by  Mr.  Bond.  This  building, 
known  as  the  Dana  House,  was  the  first  observatory  of  Har- 


WILLIAM   CRANCH    BOND. 


229 


vard  College.  It  still  stands  upon  its  original  site  at  the  south- 
east corner  of  what  are  distinctively  called  the  college  grounds, 
and  is  remembered  by  many  Harvard  graduates  as  the  resi- 
dence for  a  term  of  years  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  A.  P.  Peabody.  Its 
cupola  was  placed  upon  it  to  accommodate  one  of  Mr.  Bond's 
telescopes,  and  at  that  time  was  suitably  domed. 

Mr.  Bond's  chief  work  at  Cambridge  for  the  first  two  or 
three  years  was  a  continuation  and  extension  of  his  observa- 
tions for  the  Navy  Department  in  regard  to  the  earth's  mag. 


FIG.  4.— THE  DANA  HOUSE.     First  observatory  of  Harvard  College. 

netism.  He  was  assisted  by  his  son,  W.  C.  Bond,  Jr.,  whose 
death  in  1842  was  regarded  as  a  loss  to  science.  Renewed  ex- 
ertions were  now  made  to  secure  an  adequate  observatory  and 
set  of  instruments.  The  site  was  purchased  in  1841.  A  bril- 
liant comet  that  appeared  in  1843  furnished  a  favourable  occa- 
sion for  raising  a  subscription.  The  best  telescope  that  could 
be  produced  in  Europe,  a  refractor  of  fifteen  inches  aperture, 
equatorially  mounted,  was  ordered  from  Merz  &  Mahler,  of 
Munich,  and  ground  was  broken  for  a  pier  for  it  in  the  sum- 
mer of  the  same  year.  In  September,  1844,  the  instruments 
were  removed  from  the  Dana  House  to  the  new  observatory, 
and  Mr.  Bond  entered  upon  a  series  of  observations  for  deter- 
mining the  latitude  and  longitude  of  the  new  station. 


230 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN    AMERICA. 


Mr.  Bond's  first  recorded  observation  in  Cambridge  was  of 
date  December  31,  1839,  and  his  appointment  as  director  of 
the  observatory  dates  from  February  12,  1840.  During  the 
first  eight  years  of  his  connection  with  Harvard  College  he  is 
to  be  regarded  as  a  benefactor  rather  than  an  employee  of  the 
institution.  The  official  report  for  1846  states  that  up  to  that 
time  the  labours  of  Mr.  Bond  had  been  "  entirely  unrequited, 
except  by  the  gratification  of  his  love  of  science  and  of  home," 
and  suggests  that  this  devotion  to  the  institution  at  Cambridge 
was  the  more  marked  in  that  during  the  preceding  spring  he 
had  declined  "  the  almost  unlimited  offers  made  to  him  by  the 
administration  at  Washington  to  induce  him  to  take  charge  of 
the  observatory  there."  It  is  known  also  that  frequent  ex- 
penditures of  his  own  money  were  made  during  this  period  for 
current  expenses  and  for  things  convenient  in  conducting  the 
observatory — sums  small  severally,  no  doubt,  but  consider- 
able in  the  total.  In  1846  a  sum  equal  to  the  proposed  salaries 
for  the  next  two  years  was  subscribed  by  citizens  of  Boston, 
and  in  1849  the  official  board  was  able  to  report  that  "  through 
a  bequest  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  made  by  Edward 
Bromfield  Phillips  they  should  thereafter  be  relieved  from 
anxiety  as  to  the  payment  of  salaries  and  current  expenses." 

The  fifteen-inch  equatorial  was  set  up  in  June,  1847,  and  has 
done  splendid  service  for  now  nearly  half  a  century.  At  last 
the  skill  of  Prof.  Bond  was  furnished  with  a  fitting  implement. 
In  reply  to  an  inquiry  from  Edward  Everett,  who  had  become 
president  of  the  college  the  year  before,  Prof.  Bond  wrote  speci- 
fying several  interesting  things  that  could  be  seen  with  it,  and 
ended  by  saying  :  "  But  I  must  recollect  that  you  require  of  me 
only  a  brief  account  of  our  telescope.  The  objects  revealed 
to  us  by  this  excellent  instrument  are  so  numerous  and  inter- 
esting that  it  is  difficult  to  know  where  to  stop."  In  a  subse- 
quent letter  he  wrote  to  the  president,  "  You  will  rejoice  with 
me  that  the  great  nebula  in  Orion  has  yielded  to  the  powers 
of  our  incomparable  telescope."  Besides  this  and  other  nebulae 
the  planet  Saturn  was  an  early  subject  of  investigation.  On 
September  19,  1848,  Prof.  Bond  discovered  the  eighth  satellite 
of  this  planet,  which  long  remained  the  only  addition  to  the 
solar  system  made  on  the  continent  of  America. 

When  Bond  was  determining  the  position  of  the  Harvard 
Observatory,  Commodore  Owen,  of  the  British  navy,  was  mak- 


WILLIAM    CRANCH    BOND.  231 

ing  an  official  survey  in  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia. 
The  latter,  desiring  to  use  the  observatory  as  his  zero  point, 
co-operated  with  Bond  in  making  a  transfer  of  twelve  chro- 
nometers to  and  from  Greenwich,  England.  Afterward  other 
chronometer  expeditions  were  conducted  by  Bond  in  co-opera- 
tion with  the  United  States  Coast  Survey,  the  final  one  being 
in  1855.  In  the  summing  up  of  results,  seven  hundred  and 
twenty-three  independent  chronometer  records  were  used. 
The  magnitude  of  this  undertaking,  as  a  whole,  surpassed  any- 
thing ever  attempted  in  any  other  country. 

As  early  as  1848  Prof.  Bond  mentions,  in  his  report  as 
director  of  the  observatory,  some  experiments  with  the  daguer- 
reotype and  talbotype  processes  for  obtaining  pictures  of  the 
sun,  which,  though  encouraging,  could  hardly  be  called  suc- 
cessful. But  in  his  report  for  1850  he  is  able  to  say:  "With 
the  assistance  of  Mr.  J.  A.  Whipple,  daguerreotypist,  we  have 
obtained  several  impressions  of  the  star  Vega.  We  have  rea- 
son to  believe  this  to*  be  the  first  successful  experiment  ever 
made  either  in  this  country  or  abroad."  Some  daguerreo- 
types of  the  moon  and  certain  stars  were  exhibited  in  the 
World's  Fair  of  the  following  year  at  London,  and  received  a 
council  medal. 

The  inventive  skill  which  won  success  for  Bond  as  an  artisan 
appears  in  certain  astronomical  appliances  and  methods  devised 
by  him.  The  great  telescope  is  poised  thirteen  feet  above  the 
floor  of  the  observatory's  dome.  It  has  a  vertical  sweep  of 
more  than  ninety  degrees,  and  can,  of  course,  make  a  complete 
revolution  about  its  axis  of  support.  An  observer  would  evi- 
dently have  to  be  something  of  an  acrobat  to  use  it  success- 
fully, unless  a  suitable  chair  could  be  obtained.  There  was 
none  in  the  world  that  filled  all  the  requirements,  so  Prof. 
Bond  invented  and  made  one.  It  is  in  use  unchanged  to  this 
day,  and  by  means  of  its  ingeniously  combined  wheels,  cogs, 
and  pulleys  the  observer  can  quickly  and  easily  place  himself 
anywhere  along  the  vertical  quarter-circle  and  horizontal  full- 
circle  traversed  by  the  eyepiece  of  the  telescope. 

Certain  experiments  for  determining  differences  of  longi- 
tude by  the  aid  of  the  telegraph  were  undertaken  by  the  Coast 
Survey  in  1848,  Prof.  Bond  being  one  of  the  special  assistants 
whose  services  were  secured  for  this  work.  While  engaged 
in  these  experiments  the  idea  occurred  to  him,  as  it  had  to 


SAMUEL  FINLEY  BREESE   MORSE. 

1791-1872. 

THE  inventor  of  the  telegraph  !  From  Franklin  to  Edison 
no  American  has  won  so  much  honour  from  scientific  achieve- 
ments as  he.  Doubtless  the  wondrous  character  of  the  works 
wrought  by  these  three  men  is  due  to  the  fact  that  they  all 
dealt  with  the  still  mysterious  though  now  familiar  force  elec- 
tricity. Morse's  life,  indeed,  seemed  a  continuation  of  Frank- 
lin's, for  he  was  born  but  little  over  a  mile  from  the  Ameri- 
can philosopher's  birthplace  and  but  little  over  a  year  after 
he  died. 

Samuel  Finley  Breese  Morse  was  born  at  the  foot  of  Breed's 
Hill,  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  now  a  part  of  Boston,  April  27, 
1791.  His  earliest  paternal  ancestor  in  this  country  was  An- 
thony Morse,  who  came  from  Wiltshire,  England,  and  settled  at 
Newbury,  Mass.  In  the  sixth  generation  from  Anthony  was 
Jedediah  Morse,  D.  D.,  father  of  Samuel.  He  was  pastor  of 
the  First  Congregational  Church  in  Charlestown,  author  of  the 
American  Geography  and  a  Gazetteer  of  the  United  States, 
and  was  very  active  in  the  work  of  establishing  religious  and 
benevolent  institutions,  such  as  the  Andover  Theological  Sem- 
inary, the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  the  American 
Bible  Society,  the  American  Tract  Society,  and  various  re- 
ligious periodicals.  Dr.  Eliot  said  of  him,  "What  an  aston- 
ishing impetus  that  man  has !  "  President  Dwight  declared, 
"  He  is  as  full  of  resources  as  an  egg  is  of  meat  "  ;  and  Daniel 
Webster  spoke  of  him  as  "always  thinking,  always  writing, 
always  talking,  always  acting."  He  married,  May  14,  1789, 
Elizabeth  Ann  Breese,  daughter  of  Rebecca  (Finley)  and  Sam- 
uel Breese.  Rebecca  Finley  was  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Samuel 
Finley,  President  of  Princeton  College.  To  Dr.  and  Mrs. 
Morse  eleven  children  were  born,  of  whom  only  Samuel  and 
two  younger  brothers  survived  infancy. 


>]  ewTork ,  I) .  Applet  OIL  &  G  o , 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE    MORSE.  235 

When  four  years  old  Samuel  was  sent  to  a  little  school 
kept  by  an  old  lady  known  as  "  Old  Ma'am  Rand."  The  mis- 
tress was  unable  to  get  about  much,  and  controlled  her  flock 
from  her  chair  with  the  aid  of  a  rattan  long  enough  to  reach 
across  her  little  domain.  She  also  punished  her  pupils  by  pin- 
ning them  to  her  dress.  Young  Samuel  once  incurred  the  lat- 
ter penalty  for  scratching  a  picture  of  Ma'am  Rand  on  a  chest 
of  drawers  with  a  pin.  He  was  not  a  quiet  prisoner  and  was 
soon  at  the  farther  side  of  the  room,  dragging  part  of  the  old 
lady's  gown  after  him,  but  not  far  enough  away  to  escape  a 
smart  caning  from  the  rattan. 

At  seven  years  of  age  the  boy  was  sent  to  the  school  of  a 
Mr.  Foster  at  Andover,  Mass.,  from  which  he  passed  to  the 
Phillips  Academy  in  the  same  place,  to  prepare  for  college. 
At  fourteen  he  was  admitted  to  Yale  College,  his  father's  alma 
mater,  whither  his  brothers  soon  followed  him.  The  Rev.  Tim- 
othy Dwight,  D.  D.,  was  then  president,  and  being  a  warm 
personal  friend  of  their  father,  took  especial  interest  in  the 
Morse  boys.  Here  under  Jeremiah  Day,  Professor  of  Natural 
Philosophy,  and  the  elder  Silliman,  whose  lectures  on  chemistry 
included  the  subject  of  galvanism,  Finley  Morse  gained  his 
first  knowledge  of  electricity,  which  he  was  destined  to  use  to 
such  marvellous  advantage.  His  letters  home  give  abundant 
evidence  of  his  interest  in  his  studies,  with  frequent  especial 
references  to  the  electrical  experiments  exhibited  by  his  in- 
structors. 

The  picture  of  "  Old  Ma'am  Rand  "  scratched  by  young 
Finley  in  her  little  schoolroom  was  a  real  indication  of  artistic 
talent,  which  became  plainly  manifest  during  the  young  man's 
college  course.  Although  wholly  untaught,  he  was  able  to 
produce  miniature  portraits  which  his  fellow-students  (not 
very  critical,  perhaps)  were  willing  to  pay  moderate  prices  for. 
Immediately  after  his  graduation,  in  July,  1810,  he  wrote  home 
that  he  was  confirmed  in  the  opinion  that  he  was  made  for  a 
painter,  and  asks  that  arrangements  be  made  for  him  to  study 
with  Washington  Allston,  who  was  to  return  to  England  the 
following  year.  Although  Dr.  Morse  had  intended  his  son's 
college  course  as  a  preparation  for  a  learned  profession,  he, 
acquiesced  in  this  change  of  plan. 

In  July,  1811,  young  Morse  set  sail  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  All- 
ston for  England.  His  first  letter  home  contains  an  ardent 


236  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

wish  for  what  his  great  invention  years  afterward  made  pos- 
sible. His  words  are : 

"  /  wish  that  in  an  instant  I  could  communicate  the  information, 
but  three  thousand  miles  are  not  passed  over  in  an  instant,  and 
we  must  wait  four  long  weeks  before  we  can  hear  from  each 
other." 

Allston  introduced  Morse  to  Benjamin  West,  then  seventy- 
three  years  old  and  President  of  the  Royal  Academy.  West 
accepted  him  as  a  student,  and  showed  him  many  favours 
because  he  was  an  American.  Allston  continued  also  to  act 
the  part  of  friend  and  critic.  The  young  student  remained  in 
England  four  years,  within  which  time  the  War  of  1812  took 
place.  The  hostilities,  however,  made  no  enmity  against  him. 
In  1813  he  won  the  gold  medal  of  the  Society  of  Arts  for  a 
figure  representing  the  Death  of  Hercules,  and  a  large  paint- 
ing which  he  made  of  the  same  subject  was  admitted  to  the 
exhibition  of  the  Royal  Academy.  It  was  highly  praised,  one 
of  the  British  newspapers  ranking  it  among  the  best  nine  paint- 
ings in  a  gallery  of  nearly  a  thousand. 

Returning  home  in  the  summer  of  1815,  Mr.  Morse  opened 
a  studio  in  Boston,  where  he  exhibited  a  large  painting,  The 
Judgment  of  Jupiter,  and  waited  for  orders  for  historical  pic- 
tures. After  a  year  had  passed  without  his  obtaining  employ- 
ment he  started  out  as  a  travelling  portrait  painter  and  achieved 
a  moderate  success.  Within  that  year  of  waiting,  however,  his 
genius  for  invention  became  manifest.  In  conjunction  with 
his  brother  Sidney  he  invented  a  modification  of  the  common 
suction  pump,  which  could  be  adapted  to  the  forcing  pump 
in  the  fire  engine,  and  secured  a  patent  for  it.  In  his  travels 
as  a  portrait  painter  he  met  Miss  Lucretia  P.  Walker,  daughter 
of  Mr.  Charles  Walker,  of  Concord,  N.  H.,  and  married  her 
October  i,  1818.  The  winter  before  and  that  following  his 
marriage  he  spent  at  Charleston,  S.  C.,  in  the  pursuit  of  his 
profession.  In  the  winter  of  i8i9-'2o  he  painted  a  portrait  of 
President  Monroe,  for  which  he  had  received  an  order  from  the 
Common  Council  of  Charleston.  His  father  having  resigned 
bis  charge  and  removed  to  New  Haven,  Mr.  Morse  spent  the 
following  summer  there  with  his  wife  and  infant  daughter. 
The  next  winter  he  executed  a  great  picture  of  the  House  of 
Representatives,  in  which  were  eighty  portraits  of  mem- 
bers. 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE. 


237 


Several  years  of  struggle — in  Albany,  New  York,  and  other 
places — followed.  During  this  period  his  inventive  faculty 
was  not  idle.  He  devised  a  machine  for  carving  in  marble 
copies  of  any  model,  and  was  revolving  other  ideas  in  his 
mind.  In  February,  1825,  he  was  in  Washington  painting  a 
full-length  portrait  of  Lafayette  for  the  city  of  New  York, 
when  his  father  wrote  him  that  his  beloved  wife  had  died  of  a 
heart  disease  on  the  yth  of  that  month.  She  was  only  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  and  there  is  abundant  testimony  that  she 
was  a  woman  of  great  loveliness.  But  little  more  than  a  year 
afterward  Morse's  father  passed  away.  He  was  sixty-five 
years  of  age,  and  had  long  been  loved  and  honoured  by  a  wide 
circle. 

After  his  wife's  death  Morse  had  again  repaired  to  New 
York  and  made  gradual  progress  with  his  brush.  His  broth- 
ers had  been  there  since  1823,  had  established  the  New  York 
Observer,  and  were  steadily  building  it  up.  His  three  children 
were  now  in  the  care  of  various  relatives.  Morse  was  one  of 
the  leading  spirits  in  establishing,  during  the  winter  of  i825-'26, 
the  National  Academy  of  Design,  the  prime  object  of  which 
was  to  provide  art  students  the  facilities  that  were  then  chur- 
lishly denied  them  by  the  American  Academy  of  Arts.  He 
was  its  first  president,  and  was  continued  in  the  office  until 
1845,  when  he  retired  from  it  to  give  his  attention  to  his  tele- 
graphic researches. 

In  the  early  part  of  1827  Morse  attended  a  course  of  lec- 
tures on  electro-magnetism,  delivered  before  the  New  York 
Athenaeum,  by  Prof.  James  Freeman  Dana,  with  whom  he  was 
well  acquainted.  At  these  lectures  experiments  were  shown  to 
illustrate  the  power  of  a  straight  wire  carrying  a  current  of 
electricity  to  induce  magnetism,  and  the  increased  effect  of 
such  a  wire  bent  into  a  ring,  into  a  series  of  rings  forming  a 
spiral,  and  into  a  flat  spiral  or  volute.  Prof.  Dana  died  soon 
after  giving  these  lectures,  and  the  subject  apparently  passed 
out  of  Morse's  thoughts  for  a  time. 

Morse  was  now  at  thirty-six  years  of  age  a  successful 
artist.  He  had  been  honoured  by  his  fellows  with  repeated 
elections  to  the  presidency  of  the  National  Academy,  and  had 
made  many  warm  friends  among  the  wealthy  and  influential 
citizens  of  the  metropolis.  But  the  determination  to  rise  yet 
higher  was  as  strong  as  when  he  began  his  studies.  He  de- 


238  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

termined  to  go  to  Italy  and  study  the  works  of  the  old  masters. 
Accordingly,  he  secured  commissions  amounting  to  nearly  three 
thousand  dollars  for  pictures  to  be  painted  abroad,  and  sailed 
from  New  York,  November  8,  1829.  He  was  absent  three  years, 
spending  about  two-thirds  of  his  time  in  Rome  and  a  year  in 
Paris.  In  the  latter  city  he  renewed  his  acquaintance  with 
Lafayette,  and  before  returning  to  America  crossed  over  to 
London,  where  he  met  again  several  of  his  artist  friends  of 
early  days,  and  where  he  was  duly  honoured  as  the  President 
of  the  American  National  Academy  of  Design. 

We  come  now  to  the  masterly  application  of  science  by 
which  Morse  eclipsed  his  artistic  triumphs.  A  younger  art- 
ist, Mr.  R.  W.  Habersham,  of  Georgia,  and  James  Fenimore 
Cooper,  were  both  intimate  with  Morse  in  Paris.  Each  of 
these  men  has  put  on  record  most  positive  recollections  that 
Morse  early  in  1832  mentioned  to  him  in  conversation  the  idea 
of  conveying  intelligence  by  means  of  electricity.  The  in- 
ventor's own  recollection  did  not  carry  his  conception  of  a  tel- 
egraph back  earlier  than  October,  1832,  when  he  was  returning 
to  America  on  board  the  packet  Sully,  in  company  with  Hon. 
William  C.  Rives,  minister  to  France,  Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson, 
of  Boston,  and  others.  The  incident  which  led  up  to  the  in- 
vention is  thus  described  by  Morse's  biographer,  Dr.  S.  Irenaeus 
Prime : 

"  In  the  early  part  of  the  voyage  conversation  at  the  din- 
ner table  turned  upon  recent  discoveries  in  electro-magnetism, 
and  the  experiments  of  Ampere  with  the  electro-magnet.  Dr. 
Jackson  spoke  of  the  length  of  wire  in  the  coil  of  a  magnet, 
and  the  question  was  asked  by  some  one  of  the  company,  <  If 
the  velocity  of  electricity  was  retarded  by  the  length  of  the 
wire  ? '  Dr.  Jackson  replied  that  electricity  passes  instantane- 
ously over  any  known  length  of  wire.  He  referred  to  experi- 
ments made  by  Dr.  Franklin,  with  several  miles  of  wire  in  cir- 
cuit, to  ascertain  the  velocity  of  electricity  ;  the  result  being 
that  he  could  observe  no  difference  of  time  between  the  touch 
at  one  extremity  and  the  spark  at  the  other.  At  this  point 
Mr.  Morse  interposed  the  remark,  '  If  the  presence  of  elec- 
tricity can  be  made  visible  in  any  part  of  the  circuit,  I  see  no 
reason  why  intelligence  may  not  be  transmitted  instanta- 
neously by  electricity.'  The  conversation  went  on.  But  the 
one  new  idea  had  taken  complete  possession  of  the  mind  of 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE.  239 

Mr.  Morse.  It  was  as  sudden  and  pervading  as  if  he  had  re- 
ceived at  that  moment  an  electric  shock." 

The  invention  was  already  complete  as  to  its  main  features 
— a  current  of  electricity  passing  through  a  wire  between  two 
places,  and  signals  to  be  made  at  one  terminus  by  making  and 
breaking  the  circuit  at  various  intervals  at  the  other.  As  soon 
as  opportunity  offered  Morse  set  about  sketching  in  his  note- 
book details  of  apparatus  and  a  scheme  of  dot-and-dash  signals 
for  numbers  and  words.  He  showed  his  drawings  to  his  fel- 
low-passengers and  to  the  captain  of  the  ship,  and  told  them 
what  he  hoped  to  accomplish.  Arrived  in  New  York  Morse 
had  before  him  the  problem  of  devising  an  apparatus  to  em- 
body his  ideas.  He  could  devote  but  little  time  or  money  to 
the  task,  as  he  was  dependent  on  his  painting  and  his  pupils 
for  a  livelihood.  Two  or  three  years  passed,  during  which  he 
experimented  as  he  had  opportunity. 

In  1835  he  was  appointed  Professor  of  the  Literature  of  the 
Arts  of  Design  in  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and 
a  studio  was  assigned  to  him  on  the  third  floor  in  the  north 
wing  of  the  original  building  in  Washington  Square.  Here  he 
prosecuted  his  experiments,  and  here,  in  order  to  economize 
his  scanty  means,  he  slept  and  took  his  meals,  prepared  by 
himself.  In  January,  1836,  he  gave  one  of  his  colleagues  at 
the  university,  Prof.  Leonard  D.  Gale,  a  private  view  of  his  first 
practicable  instrument,  represented  in  Fig.  5.  His  transmitter 
is  shown  in  the  lower  part  of  the  figure.  He  did  not  trust  his 
hand  to  move  the  key,  O,  at  the  proper  intervals,  but  tripped 
it  by  toothed  "  type  "  set  in  the  rule,  M,  which  was  carried  on 
a  belt  of  cloth  passing  over  the  wheels  L,  L.  The  key  was 
hung  on  an  axle  at  N,  and  bore  a  weight  at  P.  The  circuit 
was  closed  and  broken  by  means  of  a  bent  wire  attached  to 
one  end  of  the  key,  by  which  it  was  dipped  into  and  raised 
from  two  cups  of  mercury,  J,  K,  connected  with  the  poles  of 
the  battery,  I.  The  receiver  was  a  clumsy  affair.  For  frame- 
work it  had  a  canvas-stretcher  nailed  upright  against  the  edge 
of  a  table.  The  paper  ribbon  was  drawn  from  the  roll,  A,  by 
means  of  the  clockwork,  D,  driven  by  the  weight,  E.  The  sus- 
pended frame,  F,  carried  an  armature  at  a  point  opposite  the 
electro-magnet,  h,  and  a  weighted  pencil  in  the  tube,  g. 

Prof.  Morse  worked  on  through  1836  and  half  of  1837,  oc- 
cupied mainly  with  trying  various  modifications  of  the  mark- 


240 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 


ing  apparatus  and  in  devising  the  relay  instrument.  In  these 
experiments  he  was  assisted  by  Prof.  Gale.  Having  set  up  his 
telegraph  so  as  to  operate  through  about  a  third  of  a  mile  of 


FIG>  5. — Prof.  Morse's  first  telegraph  instrument. 

wire  stretched  back  and  forth  in  the  cabinet  of  the  university, 
he  showed  it  to  parties  of  visitors  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
summer  of  1837.  Among  those  who  saw  it  was  Mr.  Alfred 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE. 


241 


Vail,  a  recent  graduate  of  the  university.  His  father,  Judge 
Stephen  Vail,  and  his  brother  George,  were  proprietors  of  large 
machine  works  at  Speedwell,  N.  J.,  where  he  had  himself  ac- 
quired skill  in  brass-working  before  he  went  to  the  university. 
He  inquired  further  into  the  matter,  and  soon  entered  into  a 
partnership  with  Prof.  Morse,  receiving  a  one-fourth  interest 
in  the  patent  to  be  secured,  in  return  for  providing  means  and 
facilities  for  developing  the  invention. 

Prof.  Morse  now  filed  a  caveat  at  the  Patent  Office,  and, 
together  with  young  Vail  and  Prof.  Gale,  who  was  admitted 
to  the  partnership,  enthusiastically  renewed  his  exertions. 
Several  valuable  modifications  of  the  invention  are  due  to  the 
ingenuity  of  Mr.  Vail.  In  February,  1838,  he  took  an  im- 
proved instrument  to  Washington,  and  exhibited  the  telegraph 
on  a  ten-mile  circuit  to  President  Van  Buren  and  his  cabinet, 
members  of  Congress,  foreign  ministers,  and  men  of  science. 
His  petition  to  Congress  for  an  appropriation  of  thirty  thou- 
sand dollars  to  defray  the  expense  of  a  specimen  line  of  fifty 
miles  was  not  acted  upon  when  Congress  adjourned  in  March. 
The  Hon.  F.  O.  J.  Smith,  of  Maine,  was  now  admitted  to  the 
partnership.  He  and  Prof.  Morse  drew  the  specifications  for 
the  American  patent  and  then  both  sailed  for  Europe  to  pro- 
cure patents  there. 

In  England  Morse  met  with  the  opposition  of  Prof.  Wheat- 
stone  and  Mr.  Cooke,  who  had  recently  patented  a  telegraph 
requiring  six  wires  and  making  signals  by  deflecting  five  mag- 
netic needles,  but  producing  no  record  on  paper.  His  applica- 
tion was  rejected  by  the  attorney  general  on  the  ground  that 
an  account  of  it  had  been  published  in  England,  although  this 
account  gave  none  of  the  essential  details.  He  was  further 
told  by  that  official  that "  America  was  a  large  country,  and  he 
ought  to  be  satisfied  with  a  patent  there  " !  Proceeding  to 
Paris,  he  was  cordially  received  by  Humboldt,  Arago,  Gay-Lus- 
sac,  and  other  distinguished  savants,  and  readily  procured  a 
French  patent. 

Prof.  Morse  had  met  M.  Daguerre  in  Paris,  and  each  had 
shown  the  other  his  invention.  As  an  artist  Morse  became 
much  interested  in  the  daguerreotype  process,  and,  after  it  was 
made  public  in  the  summer  of  1839,  obtained  from  the  in- 
ventor instructions  which  enabled  him  to  introduce  it  in 
America.  Morse  and  John  W.  Draper  soon  applied  the  pro- 


242  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

cess  to  the  taking  of  portraits — for  which  its  inventor  had 
doubted  its  being  applicable.  After  actively  pursuing  the  art 
for  about  six  months,  Prof.  Morse  laid  it  aside  to  devote  his 
attention  to  the  telegraph  more  closely,  but  during  several 
years  made  occasional  experiments  and  improvements  upon 
the  process. 

The  year  1839  was  crowded  with  discouragements.  A  pro- 
visional arrangement  to  introduce  the  telegraph  into  Russia, 
which  Morse  had  made  with  an  agent  of  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment while  he  was  in  Paris,  failed  to  receive  the  approval  of 
the  Czar.  A  Mr.  Chamberlain  who  had  undertaken  to  exhibit 
the  telegraph  to  the  governments  of  eastern  Europe,  lost  his 
life  in  an  excursion  on  the  Danube  before  he  had  effected  any 
results  of  pecuniary  value.  Meanwhile  the  rival  schemes  of 
Wheatstone  in  England  and  Steinheil  in  Bavaria  were  making 
progress. 

The  years  1840  and  1841  dragged  through  without  any 
improvement  in  Morse's  prospects.  In  the  spring  of  1840  he 
completed  the  formalities  required,  which  he  had  interrupted 
on  departing  for  Europe  in  1838,  and  received  his  patent. 
Wheatstone  had  actually  secured  an  American  patent  for  some 
of  his  devices  at  an  earlier  date,  and  was  urging  his  scheme 
upon  Congress.  Morse's  partners  had  suffered  financial  re- 
verses and  were  no  longer  able  to  help  him.  Almost  despair- 
ing, he  worked  on  constructing  improved  instruments  with  his 
own  hands,  and  obtaining  a  precarious  livelihood  by  giving 
lessons  in  painting.  The  long  session  of  Congress  in  i84i-'42 
wore  away  without  any  attention  being  secured  for  the  tele- 
graph. He  had  not  had  the  money  since  1838  to  make  an- 
other prolonged  stay  in  Washington,  but  the  next  winter,  de- 
termined to  stake  all  upon  a  last  personal  appeal  to  Congress, 
he  proceeded  to  the  capital.  Again  he  carefully  strung  his 
wires  and  set  up  his  instruments ;  day  after  day  he  patiently 
explained  the  operation  of  his  invention  to  members  of  Con- 
gress, officers  of  the  Government  departments,  and  other  vis- 
itors. He  had  a  few  active  friends  at  Washington ;  one  of 
these  was  Hon.  H.  L.  Ellsworth,  a  college  classmate,  who  was 
now  Commissioner  of  Patents.  Hon.  Charles  G.  Ferris,  of  New 
York  city,  undertook  to  push  the  bill  relating  to  the  telegraph 
through  the  House.  He  secured  a  favourable  report  from  the 
Committee  on  Commerce  December  3oth.  When  the  short 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE. 


243 


session  was  within  a  fortnight  of  its  close,  February  23d,  the 
bill  passed  the  House.  There  was  a  great  amount  of  business 
before  the  Senate,  and  the  telegraph  bill  had  not  been  reached 
when  the  last  day  of  the  session  opened.  All  that  day  and 
into  the  evening  Prof.  Morse  sat  in  the  gallery  of  the  Senate. 
Then,  assured  by  his  friends  that  there  was  no  longer  any 
hope,  he  left  the  Capitol  well-nigh  broken-hearted.  The  next 
morning  he  was  met  at  breakfast  with  congratulations.  A  few 
minutes  before  midnight  the  bill  had  been  taken  up  and 
passed ! 

Prof.  Morse's  suggestion  that  the  specimen  line  run  be- 
tween Washington  and  Baltimore  was  accepted,  and  before 
the  month  was  out  preparations  for  its  construction  were 
actively  under  way.  Prof.  Morse  appointed  as  his  assistants 
Profs.  L.  D.  Gale  and  J.  C.  Fisher.  To  Mr.  Vail  he  assigned 
the  duty  of  buying  materials  and  constructing  instruments. 
The  wire,  carefully  insulated,  was  inclosed  in  lead  pipe,  and  Mr. 
Ezra  Cornell  (afterward  the  founder  of  Cornell  University)  was 
engaged  to  lay  the  pipe  underground  with  a  machine  which  he 
had  invented  for  the  purpose.  It  was  soon  found  that  the  in- 
sulation of  the  wire  was  destroyed  by  the  method  employed  for 
inclosing  it  in  the  pipe,  and  the  plan  of  stretching  the  wire  on 
posts  was  adopted.  Steinheil  had  discovered  that  the  ground 
could  be  used  as  one  half  of  a  galvanic  circuit,  and  Morse 
found  before  he  had  proceeded  far  with  the  work  that  he  could 
get  better  results  by  utilizing  this  discovery  than  with  a  com- 
plete circuit  of  wire.  After  the  line  had  reached  a  railroad 
station  halfway  to  Baltimore,  Vail  would  get  news  from  pas- 
sengers on  trains  from  Baltimore  and  telegraph  it  ahead  to 
Morse  in  Washington.  Much  interest  was  aroused  in  this  way, 
especially  when  the  news  of  Henry  Clay's  nomination  for  the 
presidency  by  the  Whig  Convention  held  at  Baltimore  in  May 
was  known  in  Washington  before  the  passengers  on  the  train 
could  bring  it. 

On  May  24,  1844,  many  of  the  highest  officers  of  the  Gov- 
ernment assembled  with  the  personal  friends  of  Prof.  Morse  in 
Washington  to  witness  the  first  operation  of  the  telegraph  over 
the  completed  line.  To  the  daughter  of  Commissioner  Ells- 
worth, who  had  been  the  first  to  inform  him  of  the  passage  of 
the  appropriation  for  the  telegraph,  Prof.  Morse  had  promised 
that  she  should  give  the  first  message  to  be  sent  over  the  fin- 


244  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ished  line.  At  the  suggestion  of  her  mother  she  chose  the 
text,  "  What  hath  God  wrought,"  which  was  transmitted  by 
Prof.  Morse  to  Mr.  Vail  in  Baltimore,  and  by  him  instantly  re- 
turned. The  toil  and  struggles  of  twelve  years  were  now 
crowned  with  success,  and  the  inventor  received  the  richly 
merited  congratulations  of  the  assembled  company.  Two  days 
later  the  complete  line  had  its  first  public  test.  The  National 
Democratic  Convention  met  in  Baltimore  and  nominated  James 
K.  Polk  for  the  presidency,  and  the  Hon.  Silas  Wright,  then 
a  senator  from  New  York,  for  the  vice-presidency.  Vail 
promptly  secured  the  news  and  telegraphed  it  to  Morse,  by 
whom  it  was  communicated  to  Mr.  Wright,  who  was  in 
Washington.  Within  a  short  space  of  time  the  convention  was 
astounded  at  receiving  a  message  from  Mr.  Wright  saying  that 
he  respectfully  declined  the  nomination.  Most  of  the  mem- 
bers were  incredulous  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  message, 
and  the  convention  accordingly  adjourned  over  to  the  follow- 
ing day,  so  that  a  committee  might  go  to  Washington  and  con- 
firm or  disprove  it.  The  committee  returned  in  the  morning, 
and  its  report  fully  established  the  correctness  and  capacity 
of  the  telegraph. 

The  public  was  allowed  to  test  the  telegraph  gratuitously 
for  about  a  year.  On  April  i,  1845,  a  charge  of  one  cent  for 
each  four  characters  was  established  by  the  Postmaster-Gen- 
eral, after  which  the  telegraph  was  used  more  for  business 
purposes  than  when  the  service  was  free.  The  proprietors 
now  offered  to  sell  the  invention  outright  to  the  Government 
for  a  hundred  thousand  dollars,  but  fortunately  for  them  and 
the  country  the  offer  was  declined  and  the  development  of  the 
American  telegraph  was  left  to  private  enterprise.  They  then 
appointed  the  Hon.  Amos  Kendall,  ex-Postmaster-General, 
their  agent,  and  under  his  management  the  Magnetic  Tele- 
graph Company  was  organized  in  May  "  for  the  purpose  of 
constructing  a  line  of  said  telegraph  from  New  York  to  Wash- 
ington." 

Prof.  Morse  sailed  from  New  York  early  in  August  to  pre- 
sent his  telegraph  again  to  European  nations  under  much  more 
favourable  auspices  than  before.  Accomplishing  nothing  in 
England,  he  visited  Hamburg  and  afterward  Paris,  but  re- 
turned to  America  in  November,  having  received  many  honours, 
but  nothing  more  substantial.  Meanwhile  numerous  lines  were 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE.  245 

in  construction  at  home,  and  in  the  next  year  trie  telegraph 
reached  from  Washington  through  Philadelphia  and  New  York 
to  Boston,  from  New  York  to  Buffalo  by  way  of  Albany,  and 
there  were  many  branch  lines  in  operation.  Morse's  system 
had  been  adopted  by  the  Austrian  Government  early  in  the 
year. 

That  success  has  its  perils  was  early  shown  in  the  case  of 
the  telegraph.  Unauthorized  attempts  to  use  Morse's  system, 
in  whole  or  in  part,  began  soon  after  its  value  was  demon- 
strated. They  rapidly  became  numerous  and  appeared  in  the 
most  varied  forms,  and  were  often  accompanied  by  malicious 
defamation  of  the  inventor  and  barefaced  denials  of  his  claims 
to  originality  and  priority.  Mr.  Kendall  was  vigilant  in  de- 
fending the  legal  rights  of  the  Magnetic  Telegraph  Company 
and  entirely  successful.  The  first  suit  for  infringement  was 
brought  against  one  Henry  O'Rielly,  who  had  built  a  line  to 
the  West  under  license  from  the  company  and  then  attempted 
to  establish  a  branch  line  without  authority.  The  suit  was 
tried  in  the  summer  of  1848  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  Morse's 
patent^was  sustained.  O'Rielly  and  his  associates  then  made 
attempts  to  evade  the  injunction  granted  against  them  and 
finally  carried  the  matter  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States.  All  the  historical  and  expert  evidence  that  could  be 
brought  to  bear  on  the  matter  was  now  passed  in  review,  with 
the  result  that  on  January  30,  1854,  Chief  Justice  Taney  de- 
livered an  opinion,  Justices  Daniel,  Catron,  and  McLean  con- 
curring, in  which  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  was  declared  to  be  the 
first  and  sole  inventor  of  the  electro-magnetic  recording  tele- 
graph, although  it  was  denied  that  he  had  the  right  to  the  ex- 
clusive use  of  electro-magnetism  for  a  recording  telegraph. 
The  minority  opinion  differed  in  the  direction  of  being  more 
favourable  to  Morse.  Other  suits  were  decided  in  the  same 
way,  and  the  rights  and  achievements  of  Morse  were  impreg- 
nably  established. 

In  1847  Prof.  Morse  bought  a  tract  of  two  hundred  acres 
on  the  Hudson  River  just  below  Poughkeepsie.  Naming  his 
place  Locust  Grove,  he  built  a  tasteful  mansion  upon  it  and 
gathered  his  children  and  grandchildren  about  him.  He  had 
never  been  able  to  enjoy  a  home  since  he  left  his  father's  roof 
up  to  this  time,  for  even  when  his  little  family  was  established 
at  New  Haven  he  could  be  there  but  little.  The  next  year  he 


246  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

married  Miss  Sarah  E.  Griswold.  Her  mother  was  a  cousin 
of  Prof.  Morse,  and  her  father  was  an  army  officer.  The  lady 
was  a  mute.  While  Prof.  Morse  could  now  enjoy  comfort  and 
happiness  he  was  by  no  means  idle.  The  constant  attempts  to 
displace  or  infringe  upon  his  invention  entailed  upon  him  a 
great  amount  of  labour  in  correspondence,  and  in  collecting 
and  arranging  evidence  to  combat  them.  Yet  he  was  able  to 
enjoy  considerable  compensation  for  his  many  years  of  toil  and 
privation.  And  his  own  invention  ministered  to  his  pleasure 
and  comfort,  for  with  a  telegraphic  instrument  on  his  library 
table  he  could  converse  with  friends  and  correspondents  in 
every  important  place  in  his  own  land,  and  in  later  years  could 
exchange  messages  with  those  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  At- 
lantic. Several  years  later  he  bought  for  a  winter  residence  a 
beautiful  house  in  New  York,  No.  5  West  Twenty-second  Street. 
The  building  is  now  marked  with  a  tablet  bearing  this  inscrip- 
tion :  "  In  this  house  S.  F.  B.  Morse  lived  for  many  years  and 
died." 

Prof.  Morse  was  one  of  the  few  great  inventors  who  re- 
ceive an  adequate  pecuniary  reward  for  their  services  to  the 
world,  and  to  whom  merited  honours  come  while  they  are  alive. 
He  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  Yale  College, 
and  was  elected  to  membership  in  learned  societies  of  the 
United  States,  France,  Belgium,  Sweden,  and  Switzerland. 
Orders  and  decorations  were  bestowed  upon  him  between  1848 
and  1864  by  the  sovereigns  of  Turkey,  Prussia,  Wurtemberg, 
Austria,  France,  Denmark,  Spain,  Portugal,  and  Italy.  This 
list  stands  in  chronological  order.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey  took  precedence  in  honouring  the  invent- 
or of  the  telegraph  over  the  rulers  of  many  more  pretentious 
nations,  while  England  does  not  appear  at  all.  We  may  well 
believe  the  statement  of  his  biographer  that  "  Prof.  Morse  re. 
ceived  a  greater  number  of  honorary  distinctions  than  were 
ever  bestowed  upon  any  other  private  citizen." 

The  idea  of  laying  telegraphic  lines  under  water  was  con- 
ceived by  Prof.  Morse  early  in  the  history  of  his  invention ;  he 
was  known  to  have  mentioned  it  in  1837  and  1838.  His  first 
submarine  cable  was  laid  by  him  from  a  rowboat,  between 
Castle  Garden  and  Governor  Island  in  New  York  harbour  one 
moonlight  night  in  1842,  and  was  picked  up  on  the  anchor  of  a 
vessel  the  next  morning  and  broken  while  Morse  was  sending 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE    MORSE.  247 

his  first  message  over  it.  The  matter  rested  until  in  1854  it 
received  an  impulse  from  Newfoundland.  Mr.  F.  N.  Gisborne, 
of  that  province,  had  sought  to  interest  Mr.  Matthew  D.  Field, 
of  New  York,  in  a  project  for  connecting  the  island  with  the 
mainland.  Several  cables  connecting  Great  Britain  with  Ire- 
land and  with  the  continent  of  Europe  were  then  in  operation. 
Mr.  Field  consulted  his  brother,  Cyrus  W.  Field,  to  whom  this 
idea  suggested  the  greater  undertaking  of  crossing  the  Atlan- 
tic with  a  telegraphic  line.  Strong  companies  were  soon  or- 
ganized on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  to  co-operate  in  the  work. 
The  first  link  in  the  chain — a  sixty-mile  cable  from  Nova 
Scotia  to  Newfoundland — was  attempted  unsuccessfully  in 
1855,  and  laid  in  the  next  year.  In  the  summer  of  1856  Prof. 
Morse  went  to  England  to  superintend  some  of  the  preparations 
for  the  cable  across  the  Atlantic,  and  in  connection  with  this 
trip  made  a  tour  through  France,  Germany,  Denmark,  and 
Russia.  Presentations  at  royal  courts,  and  honours  by  men  of 
science  and  affairs,  attended  his  whole  progress.  Perhaps  the 
greatest  triumph  was  a  public  dinner  given  to  him  in  London, 
where  a  very  cold  shoulder  had  been  his  portion  eighteen  years 
before.  Mr.  W.  F.  Cooke,  who  had  been  the  partner  of  his 
chief  English  rival,  presided  at  the  dinner. 

The  preparations  having  been  completed,  a  fleet  of  British 
and  American  vessels  left  Valentia  Bay,  Ireland,  early  in  Au- 
gust, 1857,  laying  the  cable  as  they  went.  When  about  three 
hundred  miles  had  been  paid  out  the  cable  parted.  The  next 
June  a  second  attempt  was  made.  This  time  the  two  vessels 
bearing  the  cable  steamed  to  midocean,  and  when  the  two 
halves  of  the  line  had  been  joined,  the  vessels  set  out  in  oppo- 
site directions.  Only  two  hundred  miles  had  been  laid  when 
another  break  occurred.  A  month  later  the  third  attempt  was 
made,  and  on  August  5,  1858,  both  ends  of  the  cable  were  suc- 
cessfully landed— the  American  in  Trinity  Bay,  Newfoundland, 
the  European  at  Valentia.  Enthusiastic  celebrations  followed. 
Mr.  Field  and  Prof.  Morse  were  the  lions  of  the  civilized  world. 
The  rejoicings  over  this  success  had  not  ceased  when,  on  Sep- 
tember ist,  the  cable  ceased  to  work.  This  last  accident 
caused  many  persons  to  lose  faith  in  the  project;  then  the 
civil  war  came  on  and  another  attempt  was  not  made  until  the 
summer  of  1865,  when  the  Great  Eastern,  starting  from  Va- 
lentia, laid  twelve  hundred  miles  and  then  the  cable  parted. 


248  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

The  Great  Eastern  started  with  another  cable  on  Friday,  July  13, 
1866  (ominous  day  !),  and  on  Friday  two  weeks  later  the  Ameri- 
can end  was  safely  landed.  From  that  day  to  this  telegraphic 
communication  across  the  Atlantic  has  been  uninterrupted. 

While  the  early  attempts  to  lay  an  Atlantic  cable  were  in 
progress,  Prof.  Morse  had,  by  the  advice  of  friends  holding  high 
official  stations,  issued  a  memorial  asking  for  compensation 
for  the  use  of  his  telegraph  in  the  various  countries  of  Europe. 
He  had  the  best  claim  on  France,  for  he  had  actually  obtained 
a  patent  in  that  country,  but  the  Government,  which  had  a 
monopoly  of  transmitting  intelligence,  had  declined  to  use  his 
invention  for  some  years  and  had  afterward  adopted  it  without 
compensation  to  him.  Negotiations  followed  which  resulted 
in  a  sum  equal  to  eighty  thousand  dollars  being  awarded  to 
him  by  a  conference  of  representatives  of  ten  European  gov- 
ernments— Austria,  Belgium,  France,  the  Netherlands,  Pied- 
mont, Russia,  the  Holy  See,  Sweden,  Tuscany,  and  Turkey. 
Morse's  telegraph  had  now  come  into  use  to  the  exclusion  of  its 
rivals  everywhere  except  to  a  limited  extent  in  Great  Britain. 

In  1866  Prof.  Morse  took  some  of  his  younger  children  to 
Europe  for  a  course  of  study,  remaining  abroad  two  years. 
During  his  stay  he  accepted  a  pressing  invitation  to  serve  as 
one  of  the  committee  on  telegraphic  instruments  at  the  Paris 
Exposition.  As  on  repeated  former  visits,  he  was  everywhere 
the  recipient  of  distinguished  honours.  And  marked  honours 
awaited-  him  from  his  fellow-citizens  at  home.  Toward  the 
close  of  December,  1868,  a  splendid  banquet,  at  which  two 
hundred  gentlemen  of  mark  in  their  respective  walks  in  life 
were  present,  was  given  him  in  New  York.  It  was  presided 
over  by  Chief  Justice  Salmon  P.  Chase,  who  had  been  the  leading 
counsel  against  Prof.  Morse  in  the  first  lawsuit  brought  for  in- 
fringement on  the  telegraph  patent.  No  small  part  of  the  value 
of  Prof.  Morse's  invention  was  that  it  created  a  new  means  of 
gaining  .a  livelihood,  which  has  been  an  inestimable  boon  to 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  throughout  the  world. 
In  1869  a  movement  was  started  by  the  operators  in  Allegheny, 
City,  Pa.,  to  bestow  a  testimonial  upon  the  inventor  for  this 
service.  A  sum  of  money  was  raised,  mostly  in  one-dollar  sub- 
scriptions, sufficient  to  erect  a  bronze  statue  of  Prof.  Morse, 
which  was  placed  in  Central  Park,  New  York.  It  was  unveiled 
on  June  10,  1871,  with  inspiring  and  enthusiastic  exercises. 


SAMUEL   FINLEY   BREESE   MORSE. 


249 


When  wealth  came  to  him  Prof.  Morse  was  not  backward 
in  conferring  benefactions  upon  worthy  persons  and  institutions. 
He  was  a  man  of  firm  religious  convictions,  and  gave  many 
donations  to  churches,  theological  seminaries,  and  missionary 
societies.  A  love  for  his  early  art  clung  to  him  throughout  his 
life.  The  honours  received  for  his  artistic  talents  were  espe- 
cially prized  by  him,  and  in  his  later  years  he  encouraged 
struggling  artists  of  ability  by  purchasing  their  pictures,  and 
gave  aid  to  art  societies  and  institutions. 

Throughout  his  long  life  he  had  suffered  little  from  sick- 
ness. In  his  latter  years  he  became  subject  to  neuralgia, 
which  in  the  winter  of  18^1-^2  concentrated  its  attacks  in  his 
head.  After  weeks  of  intense  pain  he  fell  into  a  stupor  from 
which  he  partly  aroused  at  times,  and  finally  passed  away  April 
2,  1872.  At  his  funeral  and  afterward  high  honours  were  paid 
to  his  memory  by  the  States  of  New  York  and  Massachusetts, 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  the  great  telegraphic  com- 
panies, by  many  cities,  by  the  societies  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber, and  by  assemblages  of  individuals. 

"  In  person,"  says  his  biographer,  "  Prof.  Morse  was  tall, 
slender,  graceful,  and  attractive.  Six  feet  in  stature,  he  stood 
erect  and  firm,  even  in  old  age.  His  blue  eyes  were  express- 
ive of  genius  and  affection.  His  nature  was  a  rare  combina- 
tion of  solid  intellect  and  delicate  sensibility.  Thoughtful, 
sober,  and  quiet,  he  readily  entered  into  the  enjoyments  of 
domestic  and  social  life,  indulging  in  sallies  of  humour,  and 
readily  appreciating  and  greatly  enjoying  the  wit  of  others. 
Dignified  in  his  intercourse  with  men,  courteous  and  affable 
with  the  gentler  sex,  he  was  a  good  husband,  a  judicious  father, 
a  generous  and  faithful  friend.  .  .  .  He  was  as  gentle  as  he 
was  great.  Many  thought  him  weak  because  he  was  simple, 
childlike,  and  unworldly.  Often  he  suffered  wrong  rather  than 
resist,  and  this  disposition  to  yield  was  frequently  his  loss." 

What  Morse  accomplished  for  the  advance  of  civilization 
was  due  chiefly  to  an  unbounded  perseverance  which  enabled 
him  to  endure  the  grievous  hardships  and  triumph  over  the 
enormous  obstacles  that  lay  in  his  path.  It  has  been  well  said 
that  "  the  genius  and  labour  of  such  a  man  reflect  glory  upon 
his  country,  so  that  his  name  becomes  part  of  the  national 
heritage  and  treasure." 

17 


DENISON   OLMSTED. 

1791-1859. 

PROF.  OLMSTED,  the  American  Journal  of  Science  said,  in 
its  obituary  notice  of  him,  "  regarded  his  most  appropriate 
sphere  of  effort,  in  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed, 
not  so  much  to  cultivate  science  as  to  teach  and  diffuse  it." 
The  circumstances  mentioned  in  this  sentence  called  him  to  be 
a  teacher,  whatever  lines  of  work  he  may  have  planned  to  pur- 
sue. Although  his  mind  at  different  times  in  his  life  turned  to 
other  occupations  and  he  began  to  prepare  for  them,  he  was  as 
often  called  back  to  teaching  by  agencies  outside  of  himself. 
He  was  a  successful  and  superior  teacher.  But  his  achieve- 
ments in  independent  and  original  research,  for  which  he 
seemed  to  have  a  natural  taste,  were  not  few  nor  insignificant ; 
and  we  can  not  doubt  that,  if  he  had  been  permitted  to  devote 
himself  to  that  line,  he  might  have  arrived  at  great  distinction 
in  it. 

Denison  Olmsted  was  born  in  East  Hartford,  Conn.,  June 
18,  1791,  and  died  in  New  Haven  May  13,  1859.  His  father 
was  descended  from  James  Olmsted,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  who  died  about  four  years  after 
Hartford  was  founded.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Deni- 
son Kingsbury,  of  Andover,  Conn.,  from  whom  he  seems  to 
have  received  his  Christian  name.  His  father  was  a  farmer  in 
moderate  circumstances.  He  died  when  the  son  was  a  year 
old,  and  the  care  of  the  boy's  education  devolved  upon  his 
mother,  who  is  highly  spoken  of  as  having  been  a  lady  of 
native  strength  of  mind,  sound  judgment,  and  uncommon  piety 
and  benevolence.  He  was  early  trained  to  habits  of  order, 
diligence,  and  perseverance,  for  which  he  was  distinguished 
throughout  his  life. 

The  neighbourhood  school  was  not  all  that  was  desired, 
and  Mrs.  Olmsted,  in  order  to  give  her  son  better  facilities 

250 


DENISON   OLMSTED. 


DENISON   OLMSTED.  25 1 

for  instruction,  obtained  a  place  for  him,  when  he  was  about 
twelve  years  old,  in  the  family  of  Governor  Treadwell,  as  a  chore 
boy,  with  the  understanding  that  he  should  attend  the  district 
school.  He  was,  according  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Porter,  of  Farm- 
ington,  Conn.,  a  very  lovely,  intelligent  boy,  and  soon  engaged 
the  affections  of  the  family.  Governor  Treadwell  became  in- 
terested in  him,  and  took  pains  to  help  him  along  in  his  stud- 
ies. Only  reading,  spelling,  and  writing  were  taught  in  the 
school.  A  proposition  of  Governor  Treadwell  to  teach  him 
arithmetic  was  readily  accepted,  and  the  boy  made  good  prog- 
ress under  this  sympathetic  attention.  Young  Olmsted  was 
put  into  a  country  store  at  Farmington,  in  which  Governor 
Treadwell's  son  was  a  partner,  and  then  at  Burlington,  where 
he  had  the  same  employer.  When  sixteen  years  old  he  became 
desirous  of  obtaining  a  liberal  education.  He  had  already 
acquired  a  considerable  knowledge  of  English  literature,  and 
made  creditable  progress  in  the  elementary  mathematics. 
With  the  consent  of  his  guardian  and  his  mother  he  went  to 
Litchfield  South  Farms,  to  attend  the  school  of  James  Morris. 
He  undertook  the  care  of  a  public  district  school  for  a  short 
time ;  completed  his  fitting  for  college  under  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Noah  Porter  at  Farmington,  and  entered  Yale  College  in  1809 
He  took  rank  at  once  among  the  best  scholars  in  his  class, 
being  apparently  nearly  equally  proficient  in  all  his  studies, 
excelling  also  in  writing,  and  cultivating  a  taste  for  belles- 
lettres  and  poetry.  He  was  graduated  with  the  highest 
honours  in  1813,  when  he  was  appointed  one  of  the  orators  in 
a  class  of  seventy,  of  which  only  ten  received  that  distinction. 
The  subject  of  his  graduation  address  was  the  Causes  of  In- 
tellectual Greatness. 

After  graduation,  Mr.  Olmsted  obtained  a  position  as  a 
teacher  in  the  "  Union  School "  at  New  London,  Conn.,  a  pri- 
vate institution  for  boys  which  had  been  supported  by  a  few 
families  of  the  place  for  several  generations.  In  1815  he  was 
appointed  a  tutor  in  Yale  College.  Here  he  joined  a  small 
class  in  theology,  instructed  by  Dr.  Dwight,  with  the  intention, 
which  he  had  formed  a  short  time  before — having  come  under 
strong  religious  influence — of  entering  the  ministry.  Dr. 
Dwight  died  within  a  year,  and  Mr.  Olmsted  published  a  mem- 
oir of  him  in  The  Portfolio  for  November,  1817.  The  theo- 
logical studies  were  terminated  in  1817  by  Mr.  Olmsted's 


252  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

appointment  to  be   Professor  of  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  and 
Geology  in  the  University  of  North  Carolina. 

During  his  tutorship  at  Yale  in  1816,  Mr.  Olmsted  delivered 
the  Master's  Oration  on  the  occasion  of  taking  his  second  de- 
gree, taking  as  his  subject  The  State  of  Education  in  Connecti- 
cut. In  this  oration  he  brought  out  his  plan  for  a  normal 
school,  which,  so  far  as  appears,  was  then  a  complete  novelty, 
and  was  wholly  original  with  him.  He  pointed  to  "  the  igno- 
rance and  incompetency  of  schoolmasters  "  as  the  primary  cause 
of  the  low  condition  of  public  schools,  and  appealed  to  public 
and  private  liberality  to  establish  and  support  institutions  of 
a  higher  grade,  where  a  better  class  of  teachers  might  be 
trained  for  the  lower  schools.  He  has  himself,  in  one  of  his 
letters,  given  an  account  of  the  origin  of  his  conception  of 
this  scheme  of  "  a  school  for  schoolmasters."  It  was  while 
engaged  in  the  Union  School  at  New  London,  where  he  had 
pupils  of  various  ages  pursuing  a  great  variety  of  studies;  so 
that,  while  the  number  of  pupils  was  small,  the  classes  were 
many.  He  discovered  a  marked  difference  in  intelligence  and 
capacity  between  those  who  were  studying  the  languages  and 
mathematics,  preparatory  to  entering  college,  and  who  devoted 
only  a  small  part  of  the  day  to  the  common  rudimentary 
branches,  such  as  English  grammar,  geography,  reading,  writ- 
ing, and  spelling,  and  those  who  spent  all  their  time  in  these 
elementary  studies.  "I  was  surprised  to  find  that  the  former 
excelled  the  latter  even  in  a  knowledge  of  those  very  studies; 
they  read  better,  spelt  better,  wrote  better,  and  were  better 
versed  in  grammar  and  geography.  One  inference  I  drew 
from  the  observation  was  that  an  extended  course  of  studies, 
proceeding  far  beyond  the  simple  rudiments  of  an  English 
education,  is  not  inconsistent  with  acquiring  a  good  knowledge 
of  the  rudiments,  but  is  highly  favourable  to  it,  since,  on  ac- 
count of  the  superior  capacity  developed  by  the  higher  branches 
of  study,  the  rudiments  may  be  better  learned  in  less  time ; 
and  a  second  inference  was  that  nothing  was  wanted  in  order 
to  raise  all  our  common  schools  to  a  far  higher  level,  so  as  to 
embrace  the  elements  of  English  literature,  of  the  natural 
sciences,  and  of  the  mathematics,  but  competent  teachers  and 
the  necessary  books.  I  was  hence  led  to  the  idea  of  a  semi- 
nary for  schoolmasters."  His  plan  was  outlined  in  accordance 
with  this  thought.  Another  encouraging  feature  in  his  scheme, 


DENISON  OLMSTED.  253 

as  it  appeared  to  him,  was  that  "  no  sooner  would  the  supe- 
rior order  of  schoolmasters  commence  their  labours,  than  the 
schools  themselves  would  begin  to  furnish  teachers  of  a  higher 
order.  The  schoolmasters  previously  employed  were  for  the 
most  part  such  as  had  received  all  their  education  at  the  com- 
mon schools,  and  could  only  perpetuate  the  meagre  system  of 
beggarly  elements  which  they  had  learned ;  but  it  was  obvious 
that  schools  trained  in  a  more  extended  course  of  studies 
would  produce  teachers  of  a  corresponding  character — that  is, 
if  we  could  once  start  the  machine,  it  would  go  on  by  its  own 
momentum."  He  was  contemplating  a  series  of  newspaper 
articles  in  advocacy  of  his  plan,  and  communications  concern- 
ing it  with  eminent  men  interested  in  education,  when  he  was 
called  to  another  enterprise.  The  idea  of  normal  schools  was 
afterward  taken  up  by  other  men  and  brought  by  them  before 
the  public  under  much  more  favourable  circumstances  than  he 
could  have  commanded  had  he  remained  in  Connecticut  and 
continued  his  advocacy  at  that  time. 

At  a  later  time,  as  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Commission- 
ers of  Common  Schools  for  Connecticut,  in  1840,  in  drafting 
the  annual  report,  he  observed  that  "  wherever  normal  schools 
have  been  established  and  are  adequately  sustained,  the  experi- 
ment has  uniformly  resulted  in  supplying  teachers  of  a  superior 
order.  As  in  every  other  art  whose  principles  are  reduced  to 
rule  and  matured  into  a  system,  the  learner  is  not  limited  to 
the  slow  and  scanty  results  of  his  single  unaided  experience, 
but  is  at  once  invested  with  the  accumulated  treasures  of  all 
who  have  laboured  in  the  same  before  him." 

Preparatory  to  going  to  his  professorship  in  North  Carolina, 
Mr.  Olmsted  engaged  in  private  studies  in  geology  with  Prof. 
Silliman.  He  found  at  his  new  post  two  of  his  old  friends, 
Yale  men  like  himself,  occupying  professorial  chairs :  Elisha 
Mitchell,  his  former  classmate,  that  of  Mathematics  and  Natu- 
ral Philosophy,  and  Ethan  A.  Andrews  that  of  Languages,  and 
here  he  spent  seven  happy  years. 

In  1821  he  laid  before  the  Board  of  Internal  Improvements 
of  North  Carolina  a  proposition  to  undertake  a  geological  sur- 
vey of  the  State,  offering  to  perform  the  entire  work  himself 
gratuitously,  but  suggesting  an  appropriation  of  one  hundred 
dollars  to  defray  his  necessary  expenses  in  travelling,  to  be 
afterward  renewed  or  not  at  the  pleasure  of  the  board.  The 


254  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

proposition  was  declined  by  the  Board  of  Internal  Improve- 
ments, but  the  survey  was  afterward  made  under  the  direction 
of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture.  To  this  board  Prof.  Olm- 
sted  addressed  his  report,  which  was  published  in  two  parts,  in 
1824  and  1825,  and  filled  in  all  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
octavo  pages.  The  American  Journal  of  Science  observes  of 
this  survey  that,  regarded  especially  as  the  gratuitous  vacation 
work  of  a  single  individual,  and  in  view  of  the  state  of  geolog- 
ical science  in  this  country  at  the  time,  it  "  must  certainly  be 
looked  upon  as  creditable  in  the  highest  degree  both  to  the 
enterprise  and  to  the  scientific  ability  of  its  projector;  and  it 
has  undoubtedly  been  of  great  benefit,  not  only  to  the  State 
which  authorized  it,  but  to  the  country  and  to  science  gen- 
erally, by  the  stimulus  which  it  afforded  to  similar  enterprises 
in  other  States."  It  was  the  first  instance  of  one  of  the  United 
States  instituting  a  geological  survey.  In  the  course  of  his 
work  Prof.  Olmsted  gave  the  first  geological  description  of  the 
Deep  River  coal  beds  and  of  the  new  red  sandstone  accom- 
panying them,  and  referred  the  strata  correctly  to  the  same 
age  with  that  of  the  Richmond  coal  beds  and  the  Connecticut 
River  sandstones. 

Prof.  Olmsted  began  researches  to  determine  the  practica- 
bility of  obtaining  illuminating  gas  from  cotton  seed,  but  re- 
moved to  the  North  before  he  had  secured  definite  results. 

In  1825  Prof.  Olmsted  was  appointed  Professor  of  Mathe- 
matics and  Natural  Philosophy  in  Yale  College.  In  1836  this 
chair  was  divided  at  his  request,  and  the  professorship  of 
Mathematics  was  assigned  to  A.  D.  H.  Stanley.  As  a  professor 
in  Yale  he  performed  an  unbroken  service  of  thirty-four  years, 
till  it  was  interrupted  by  his  illness.  His  labours  as  a  teacher 
during  the  last  twenty  years  of  his  life  consisted,  as  described 
by  Dr.  Woolsey  in  The  New-Englander,  "  in  teaching  astronomy 
by  a  text-book,  and  in  three  courses  of  lectures — experimental 
ones  on  natural  philosophy  and  optics,  historical  ones  on  the 
progress  of  astronomical  discovery,  and  theoretical  ones  on 
meteorology.  His  colleagues  and  friends  have  regarded  him 
as  a  born  teacher,  as  possessing  a  most  happy  union  of  several 
powers — the  capacity  to  convey  instruction  with  clearness  and 
evidence,  the  capacity  to  impress  the  pupil  with  the  importance 
of  the  branches  taught,  the  disposition  to  shrink  from  no  labour 
necessary  in  preparing  himself  for  teaching,  and  to  require  of 


DENISON    OLMSTED.  255 

the  student  that  he  master  and  reproduce  the  lessons  conveyed 
to  him.  While  many  lecturers  prepare  their  lectures  once  for 
all,  and  then  cease  to  improve  them,  he  was  constantly  revis- 
ing, elaborating,  and  almost  constructing  anew  the  courses  on 
astronomy  and  meteorology  which  he  delivered  annually  to  the 
three  upper  classes."  These  lectures  were  spoken  of  by  Dr. 
Barnard,  in  his  Journal  of  Education,  as  having  been  charac- 
terized *'  by  fulness,  clearness  of  method,  and  sometimes  by 
eloquence.  The  course  on  meteorology  was,  perhaps,  on  the 
whole,  the  most  attractive  and  useful." 

Prof.  Olmsted  soon  became  sensible  of  the  deficiency  of  the 
text-books  on  which  he  had  to  rely  in  his  department.  En- 
field's  Philosophy  was  inaccurate  and  behind  the  state  of 
science ;  and  the  work  of  Prof.  Farrar,  of  Cambridge,  was  too 
extensive  and  too  difficult.  He  undertook  to  prepare  new 
books  suitable  for  his  classes.  His  Natural  Philosophy  ap- 
peared in  1831,  and  his  School  Philosophy  in  1832.  His  As- 
tronomy, first  published  in  1839,  went  through  forty  or  fifty 
editions.  An  edition  of  it  was  printed  in  raised  letters  for  the 
blind,  it  having  been  selected  by  Dr.  Howe,  according  to  Dr. 
Barnard,  "  for  its  clear,  accurate,  comprehensive  presentation 
of  the  science  of  which  it  treats."  The  Rudiments  of  Natural 
Philosophy  and  Astronomy  followed,  in  1842.  The  Letters  on 
Astronomy  was  a  work  in  more  familiar  style,  cast  in  the  form 
of  letters  to  a  lady,  and  prepared  as  a  reading  book  for  the 
school  libraries  established  by  the  Massachusetts  Board  of  Edu- 
cation. 

The  great  meteoric  shower  of  November,  1833,  which  was 
observed  over  a  large  part  of  the  American  continent  and  on 
the  ocean,  directed  Prof.  Olmsted's  mind  to  a  new  and  original 
field  of  investigation ;  and  several  papers  upon  it  were  pub- 
lished by  him  and  Prof.  A.  C.  Twining,  of  West  Point,  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science  during  1834.  The  collation  of 
the  collected  observations  brought  out  the  fact  that  the  appar- 
ent point  of  radiation  of  the  meteors  was  identical  with  that 
toward  which  the  earth  was  tending  in  space — which  indicated 
a  cosmical  origin.  It  was  further  found  that  several  showers 
had  been  observed  before  within  forty  years,  on  the  same  day 
of  November.  In  explanation  of  the  phenomenon,  Prof.  Olm- 
sted supposed,  in  an  article  published  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Science,  that  the  meteors  "  consisted  of  portions  of  the  ex- 


256  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

treme  parts  of  a  nebulous  body,  which  revolves  around  the  sun 
in  an  orbit  inferior  to  that  of  the  earth  ;  but  little  inclined  to 
the  plane  of  the  ecliptic ;  having  its  aphelion  near  to  the  earth's 
path  ;  and  having  a  periodic  time  of  one  hundred  and  eight-two 
days,  nearly."  Two  of  the  principal  features  of  this  theory — 
those  of  the  cosmical  origin  of  the  meteors  and  their  periodicity 
— are  still  maintained  ;  but  instead  of  one  periodical  shower, 
astronomers  now  count  several ;  and  instead  of  a  single  in- 
fraterrestrial  nebulous  body,  they  connect  the  several  showers 
each  with  a  particular  comet.  Priority  in  putting  forth  these 
conceptions  was  disputed  by  Chladni,  whose  claims,  however, 
do  not  seem  to  have  been  so  definitely  established  as  those  of 
Prof.  Olmsted.  Of  course,  the  suggestion  of  the  cosmical  ori- 
gin of  meteors,  as  a  suggestion,  was  never  wholly  new,  for  it 
had  been  made  in  general  terms  by  other  philosophers,  from 
Anaxagoras  down  ;  but  the  credit  is  claimed  for  Prof.  Olmsted 
of  having  first  embodied  it  in  a  definite,  coherent  theory,  ac- 
companied with  valid  evidence  ;  whether  or  how  far  Chladni 
may  have  anticipated  him,  his  conclusions,  as  Prof.  Silliman 
well  says,  were  undoubtedly  original  with  himself,  and  entirely 
independent  of  any  results  of  preceding  investigations.  His 
work  was,  furthermore,  spoken  of  in  the  most  complimentary 
terms  by  the  most  distinguished  foreign  students  in  those  lines 
of  the  day.  Humboldt  referred,  in  the  first  volume  of  his  Cos- 
mos, to  the  excellent  description  which  Prof.  Olmsted  had  given 
of  the  shower  in  November,  1833,  and  to  his  brilliant  confirma- 
tion of  Chladni's  view  that  the  phenomenon  was  of  cosmical 
origin.  Olbers  praised  him  for  his  circumstantial  description 
and  collection  of  particulars  of  the  shower,  and  agreed  with 
him  in  the  conclusion  that  it  came  from  abroad.  Biot,  in  a 
communication  to  the  French  Academy  in  1836,  spoke  of  his 
"  very  comprehensive  and  highly  interesting  work  "  in  collect- 
ing and  making  known  "  all  the  circumstances  of  position,  di- 
rection, and  periodicity  peculiar  to  the  meteors  of  the  i3th  of 
November." 

In  his  first  memoir  on  the  shooting  stars,  Prof.  Olmsted 
suggested  that  the  explanation  of  the  cause  of  the  meteors  of 
November  i3th  might  include  that  of  the  zodiacal  light.  He 
further  published  a  well-matured  theory  of  the  nebulous  body 
represented  by  the  zodiacal  light.  Biot  agreed  with  him  in  this 
view,  and  recognised  his  priority  in  the  conception.  Astronomy 


DENISON   OLMSTED. 


257 


has  not  yet  satisfied  itself  concerning  the  nature  of  this  phe- 
nomenon. He  also  studied  the  aurora  borealis,  concerning 
which  he  contributed  articles  to  the  American  Journal  of  Sci- 
ence in  1835  and  1837,  and  gave  at  length  a  theory  of  cosmical 
origin  and  secular  period  in  the  eighth  volume  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Contributions  to  Knowledge.  He  thus  ascribed  shoot- 
ing stars,  auroras,  and  the  zodiacal  light  to  substantially  the 
same  origin.  These  views,  however,  as  Prof.  Silliman  observes, 
were  mostly  thrown  out  only  as  conjectures,  and  not  as  formal 
theories  to  be  held  and  defended. 

Previous  to  this,  Prof.  Olmsted  had  interested  himself  in 
meteorological  studies.  In  1830  he  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  a  new  theory  of  hailstones,  in  which  he  as- 
cribed the  origin  of  those  formations  to  the  sudden  mingling 
of  large  bodies  of  hot  and  humid  air  with  air  extremely  cold,  by 
which  the  vapour  of  the  former  would  be  rapidly  condensed  and 
congealed  into  hail.  These  effects,  he  assumed,  would  be  pro- 
duced whenever,  by  means  of  opposing  winds,  whirlwinds,  or 
other  atmospheric  disturbanqes,  hot  air  should  be  brought 
above  the  line  of  congelation  or  cold  air  brought  below  it. 

He  agreed  with  Redfield  in  supposing  that  ocean  gales  are 
progressive  whirlwinds;  and  he  believed  that  he  had  established 
their  laws  or  modes  of  action  on  an  impregnable  basis.  This 
view  of  storms  as  progressive  whirlwinds  still  holds  good  as 
a  generalization  ;  but  his  further  ascription  of  the  ultimate 
causes  of  atmospheric  disturbances  to  the  diurnal  and  orbital 
motions  of  the  earth  has  not  found  an  accepted  place  in  sci- 
ence. Prof.  Olmsted  had  a  close  friendship  and  a  warm  sym- 
pathy with  Mr.  Redfield,  with  whose  views  respecting  the  rota- 
tory motions  of  storms  he  agreed  ;  and  he  read  an  affectionate 
memorial  of  him  before  the  American  Association,  at  Montreal, 
in  1857. 

Prof.  Olmsted  and  Prof.  Loomis,  who  was  then  a  tutor  in 
the  college,  were  the  first  persons  of  all  observers  to  find  Hal- 
ley's  comet  on  its  return  in  1835.  One  of  the  results  of  this 
observation  was  the  awakening  of  an  interest  in  procuring 
larger  and  improved  telescopes.  It  did  not  bring  immediate 
fruit,  it  is  true.  The  project  already  conceived  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  permanent  observatory  at  Cambridge,  to  which  it 
gave  a  new  impulse,  was  not  yet  to  be  made  real.  There  were 
other  circumstances,  however,  than  want  of  interest  in  astrono- 


258  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

my  that  kept  such  liberal  schemes  from  being  carried  out — the 
country  and  the  universities  had  not  grown  up  to  them,  and  the 
needed  abundance  of  money  had  not  yet  come — but  this  was 
one  of  the  incidents  that  kept  the  movement  vital  and  sped  it 
on.  Prof.  Olmsted  also  conceived  a  plan  for  the  establishment 
of  an  observatory  at  Yale  College,  which  should  have  two  de- 
partments :  one  to  aid  in  the  instruction  of  students  and  the 
other  for  the  use  of  scientific  observers ;  but  the  time  had  not 
yet  come  for  this.  As  another  incident  of  his  astronomical 
work,  President  Woolsey  relates  that  "  for  a  number  of  years, 
until  his  health  forbade  it  and  his  eyesight  began  to  fail,  he 
was  accustomed  to  gather  his  class  around  him  on  a  bright  au- 
tumn evening  and  introduce  them  to  the  heavenly  bodies.  In 
this  way  he  endeavoured  to  train  up  a  corps  of  practical  ob- 
servers, whose  labours,  when  they  should  be  scattered  abroad 
in  this  vast  country,  should  not  be  lost  to  science." 

In  purely  practical  lines  of  enterprise  he  invented  an  excel- 
lent stove  which  bore  his  name,  and  the  patent  for  which 
brought  him  considerable  profit ;  and  he  devised  a  preparation 
of  lead  and  rosin  for  lubricating  machinery. 

Of  his  qualities  as  a  teacher  Prof.  Silliman  mentions  espe- 
cially his  uniform  kindness  and  courtesy  of  demeanour  and  pa- 
tience in  imparting  instruction  ;  the  excellent  moral  influence 
he  always  exerted,  his  consistent  Christian  example,  his  per- 
sonal counsels,  the  genuine  friendliness  of  his  disposition,  and 
the  unaffected  interest  he  always  manifested  in  the  welfare  of 
his  pupils.  He  was  ever  ready  to  encourage  and  assist  any 
who  exhibited  special  fondness  for  the  studies  of  his  depart- 
ment, and  it  always  gave  him  pleasure  when  students  passed 
beyond  the  bounds  of  ordinary  attainment. 

He  laboured  to  make  knowledge  more  accessible  to  the 
people,  and  science  comprehensible  and  interesting  to  them. 
Dr.  Barnard,  who  describes  him  from  the  point  of  view  of  a 
teacher,  says  that  he  "  availed  himself  at  all  times  of  the  lyceum 
and  the  popular  lecture,  as  well  as  of  the  daily  press,  to  apply 
the  principles  of  science  to  the  explanation  of  extraordinary 
phenomena  of  meteorology  and  astronomy,  as  well  as  to  the 
advancement  of  domestic  comfort  and  popular  improvement 
generally.  In  an  essay  read  before  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Education,  at  New  York,  in  1835,  he 
showed,  in  a  felicitous  manner,  that  the  whole  tendency  and 


DENISON   OLMSTED.  259 

drift   of    science,   its   inventions    and    institutions,   is    demo- 
cratic." 

Besides  the  works  already  mentioned,  Prof.  Olmsted  pub- 
lished many  articles  of  a  scientific  or  literary  character  in  the 
leading  periodicals  of  the  day — contributing  thus  to  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science,  The  Transactions  of  the  American  As- 
sociation, The  Smithsonian  Contributions,  The  Christian  Spec- 
tator, and  The  New-Englander.  He  was  especially  fond  of  bio- 
graphical composition,  and  his  memoirs  of  Dr.  Dwight,  Sir 
Humphry  Davy,  Governor  Treadwell,  Eli  Whitney,  and  William 
C.  Redfield  are  mentioned  by  Prof.  Silliman  as  favourable  ex- 
^amples. 


ISAAC    LEA. 

1792-1886. 

FEW  naturalists  have  enjoyed  a  longer  working  life,  or 
been  able  to  make  it  more  fruitful  in  finished  achievement, 
than  Isaac  Lea.  His  first  paper,  being  a  simple  account  of  the 
minerals  then  known  to  exist  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia, 
was  published  in  1818.  Additions  to  this  contribution  were 
made  but  slowly  for  a  few  years,  but  as  the  list  swelled  they 
became  frequent,  giving  evidence  of  indefatigable  industry  in 
research;  and  the  last  paper,  standing  as  No.  279  on  the  cata- 
logue, is  dated  1876,  closing  a  record  of  fifty-eight  years  of 
productive  activity.  During  most  of  this  time  Dr.  Lea  was 
associated  in  the  conduct  of  a  large  publishing  house,  and  was 
able  to  give  only  his  hours  of  leisure  to  science. 

Isaac  Lea  was  born  in  Wilmington,  Delaware,  March  4, 
1792.  He  was  descended  from  ancestors  who  came  over  from 
Gloucestershire,  England,  with  William  Penn,  and  were  de- 
scribed as  "  a  couple  of  noted  and  valued  preachers."  He  was 
the  fifth  son  of  James  Lea,  a  wholesale  merchant,  and  Eliza- 
beth, daughter  of  Thomas  Gibson,  and  was  at  first  put  in 
a  course  of  classical  instruction  at  the  academy  in  Wilmington, 
in  preparation  for  the  medical  profession.  This  purpose  was 
afterward  given  up,  and,  when  he  was  fifteen  years  old,  Isaac 
was  sent  to  Philadelphia  to  engage  in  mercantile  business  in 
association  with  his  brother.  The  business  panic  which  fol- 
lowed the  peace  of  1815  broke  up  the  firm,  and  in  1820  Mr. 
Lea  married  Frances  Ann,  daughter  of  Mathew  Carey,  at  that 
time  the  leading  publisher  and  bookseller  in  the  United  States. 
He  entered  the  house  of  M.  Carey  &  Sons,  which  he  continued 
under  the  well-known  firms  of  Carey  &  Lea  and  Lea  &  Blanch- 
ard  until  1851,  when  he  retired  from  business.  The  children 
of  his  marriage  were  M.  Carey  Lea,  whose  researches  in  chem- 
ical physics  are  widely  known ;  Henry  Charles  Lea,  LL.  D., 

260 


ISAAC  LEA. 


ISAAC   LEA.  26l 

the  historian  of  the  Inquisition ;  and  Frances  Lea,  who  died  in 
1894.  Mr.  Lea  had  inherited  a  strong  taste  for  Nature  from 
his  mother,  and  found  a  congenial  spirit  in  Prof.  Vanuxem, 
then  also  a  youth,  with  whom  he  formed  the  habit  of  making 
collecting  excursions  around  the  city.  The  two  companions 
were  soon  led,  by  what  they  found  and  observed,  to  inquiry 
into  the  composition  and  structure  of  the  rocks ;  they  had  to 
pursue  it  at  first  without  any  guidance,  but  in  a  short  time 
became  acquainted  with  the  mineralogical  collection  of  Dr. 
Adam  Seybert.  A  diversion  to  their  pursuits  was  given  by  the 
occurrence  of  the  war  with  Great  Britain  in  1812.  They  joined 
a  volunteer  rifle  company,  which  offered  its  services  to  the 
Governor.  Although  the  company  was  disbanded  without 
being  called  into  service,  young  Lea  had,  by  joining  it,  en- 
gaged enough  in  war  to  violate  the  principles  of  the  Society  of 
Friends,  and  he  lost  his  birthright  in  it.  Among  the  excur- 
sions which  the  two  youths  made  was  one  to  the  coal  mines 
near  Wilkesbarre,  where  they  found  slates  containing  mollusca, 
which  Lea  described  forty  years  afterward  in  the  Journal  of 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  They  walked  back,  over 
the  Pocono  Mountain  through  the  Wind  Gap,  where  Lea  found 
the  first  trilobite  they  had  ever  seen,  and  down  the  Delaware 
River.  In  1815  they  were  both  elected  members  of  the  Phila- 
delphia Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  and  began  to  take  active 
parts  in  its  proceedings ;  and  in  this  society  Mr.  Lea  read  his 
first  paper,  already  referred  to,  embodying  the  results  of  many 
years  of  close  observation  which  the  friends  had  made  upon 
the  rocks  during  their  excursions. 

On  the  publication,  in  1818,  of  Prof.  Silliman's  prospectus 
of  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  Mr.  Lea  procured  the  names 
of  fourteen  subscribers  to  the  journal — an  act  which  Prof.  Silli- 
man  afterward  declared  "  was  the  turning-point  of  the  scheme  " ; 
for,  receiving  such  encouragement  from  a  person  with  whom 
he  had  no  personal  acquaintance,  he  was  sure  the  journal 
would  be  successful.  Mr.  Lea  contributed  several  papers  to 
the  early  numbers  of  this  journal,  at  the  editor's  request ;  but 
the  article  of  this  period  which  is  perhaps  most  worthy  of 
special  mention  is  one  that  he  published  in  1828  in  the  Ameri- 
can Quarterly  Review,  on  the  Northwest  Passage,  in  which  he 
expressed  the  opinion  that,  if  the  passage  were  ever  made,  it 
must  be,  as  was  indicated  by  the  direction  of  the  currents, 


262  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

from  west  to  east.  This  hypothesis  was  verified  in  1852  by 
Captain  McClure's  making  the  passage  in  the  direction 
named. 

As  Mr.  Lea  advanced  in  his  geological  studies,  he  found 
that  it  was  necessary  to  know  something  of  shells.  In  order 
to  study  their  genera  as  described  by  Lamarck,  he  imported  a 
large  collection  of  shells  from  China.  He  soon  became  inter- 
ested in  this  branch  of  the  science,  and  ultimately  made  it  the 
leading  object  of  his  researches.  A  collection  of  several 
species  of  Unio,  including  some  beautiful  and  rare  specimens, 
was  sent  to  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences,  in  1825,  by 
Major  Long,  of  the  Engineer  Corps,  who  had  obtained  them 
in  dredging  the  channel  of  the  Ohio  River  below  Louisville.  At 
about  the  same  time,  Mr.  Lea's  brother  Thomas,  having  engaged 
to  look  after  the  shells  in  the  vicinity  of  Cincinnati,  where  he 
was  living,  shipped  a  barrel  of  shells  of  rare  beauty,  including 
six  new  species.  The  description  of  these  specimens — De- 
scription of  Six  New  Specimens  of  the  Genus  Unio — presented 
to  the  American  Philosophical  Society  in  1827,  formed  the  first 
of  that  long  series  of  papers  on  the  Unio  and  allied  shells  which 
constitute  the  chief  of  Mr.  Lea's  works.  Yet,  at  the  time  he 
presented  it,  he  had  no  thought  that  he  should  ever  have 
another  word  to  say  on  the  subject,  for  at  that  time  no  one 
conceived  the  infinite  variety  of  species  of  the  family  which 
American  waters  are  now  known  to  contain.  As  a  side  result 
of  Mr.  Lea's  interest  in  the  Unios  may  be  mentioned  the  con- 
version of  his  brother  from  an  indifferent  barreller  of  shells  for 
another  to  an  enthusiastic  student  of  land  shells  and  botany, 
and  to  be  the  author  of  a  monograph  on  The  Plants  of  Cin- 
cinnati. 

Dr.  Lea  spent  the  travelling  season  of  1832  in  Europe, 
where  the  journal  of  his  excursions  is  a  record  of  successive 
introductions  to  famous  scientific  men,  and  interesting  conver- 
sations with  them,  in  which  he  was  never  the  only  one  who  re- 
ceived information.  In  London  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the 
Geological  Society,  and  met  most  of  the  leading  geologists  of 
Great  Britain.  At  Oxford,  he  attended  the  second  meeting  of 
the  British  Association,  over  which  Dr.  Buckland  presided. 
Meeting  Dr.  Buckland  afterward  in  London,  the  conversation 
turned  upon  the  quantity  of  coal  in  the  United  States.  Dr. 
Buckland  thought  we  had  very  little  coal.  Dr.  Lea  pointed 


ISAAC   LEA.  263 

out  on  a  map  the  coal  fields  of  the  United  States  as  they  were 
then  known.  After  several  hours  spent  in  the  examination  of 
the  matter,  Dr.  Buckland  taking  notes  all  the  time,  the  dis- 
tinguished geologist  remarked,  as  he  took  his  leave  to  meet  an 
engagement,  that  England  had  enough  coal  to  supply  the 
United  States  when  its  supply  should  fail.  Dr.  Lea  replied 
that  the  quantity  of  anthracite  and  bituminous  coal  was  almost 
unlimited  in  North  America,  and  promised  to  send  him  maps 
and  sections  that  would  satisfy  him  upon  the  subject.  He  ful- 
filled his  promise  after  he  returned  home,  and,  upon  the 
evidence  thus  afforded,  Dr.  Buckland  presented  a  paper  to 
the  next  meeting  of  the  British  Association  on  the  extent  of 
our  coal  supply.  At  the  British  Museum,  by  the  request  of  Dr. 
Gray,  Dr.  Lea  went  over  the  collection  of  the  Unionidce,  ar- 
ranged and  named  them  correctly,  and  added  some  new  species 
from  the  United  States.  He  called,  in  Paris,  on  Baron  Ferus- 
sac,  the  eminent  student  of  terrestrial  and  fluviatile  mollusca, 
who  was  then  engaged  in  preparing  his  great  work  on  the 
Unionidce.  During  the  conversation  the  baron  "  complimented 
Dr.  Lea  by  saying  that  he  could  not  go  on  with  his  work  until 
he  (Dr.  Lea)  had  finished  his  memoirs."  Dr.  Lea  afterward 
spent  several  hours  in  going  over  the  baron's  collections, 
which  contained  Unionidce.  from  Brazil,  Syria,  Turkey,  and 
Egypt,  and  rearranging  it,  cutting  down  the  species  and  form- 
ing numerous  synonyms.  Afterward,  he  met  Blainville,  Ferus- 
sac,  and  others  at  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  to  arrange  and  name 
all  the  Unionidce.  of  the  collection  there,  to  which  he  added 
fourteen  species.  From  Studer,  the  elder,  in  Berne,  he  received 
the  last  copy  in  the  author's  possession  of  his  work  on  the  land 
and  fresh-water  shells  of  Switzerland,  and  compliments  on  the 
papers  he  had  himself  written.  At  Paris,  again,  he  examined 
the  Unionidce  in  the  Due  de  Rivoli's  collection,  which  contained 
all  those  of  Lamarck,  and  was  thereby  able  to  identify  all  of 
Lamarck's  species  in  his  subsequent  memoir.  Calling  on  M. 
Gay  by  invitation,  he  was  shown  all  the  mollusca  which  that 
naturalist  had  collected  in  his  travels,  and  was  invited  to  select 
a  specimen  of  each.  Thus  he  found  the  most  eminent  natu- 
ralists everywhere,  on  the  strength  of  the  few  papers  he  had 
published  on  American  mollusca,  ready  to  welcome  him  as  one 
of  themselves,  and  to  receive  instruction  from  him.  Their 
general  message  to  him  was  to  go  on  with  the  investigations 


264 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


he  had  begun,  with  the  assurance  that  no  naturalist  in  America 
or  Europe  had  the  advantages  that  he  possessed. 

On  returning  home  in  November,  1832,  he  found  that  he 
had  been  anticipated  in  a  work  he  should  have  done  on  the 
Tertiary  shells  of  Alabama,  but,  having  specimens  of  the 
species  in  his  cabinet,  he  prepared  a  paper,  Contributions  to 
Geology,  which  he  presented  to  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sci- 
ences in  August,  1833.  It  contained  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
one  species.  His  Synopsis  of  the  Family  Naiades,  published 
in  1836,  and  afterward  supplemented  and  expanded,  is  said  to 
have  settled  satisfactorily  to  most  conchologists  the  synonymy 
of  the  species.  On  receiving  it,  Prince  Charles  Bonaparte  ex- 
pressed a  desire  to  see  all  parts  of  zoology  treated  in  the  same 
manner.  In  1849  Dr.  Lea  presented  a  paper  on  the  footmarks 
of  the  reptile  Sauropus pn 'mcevus,  found  by  him  in  the  red  shales 
at  Pottsville,  Pennsylvania,  seventeen  hundred  feet  below  the 
conglomerate,  which  was  of  interest  on  account  of  the  discussion 
it  excited  as  to  the  age  of  the  fossil.  The  footprints  were 
assigned  to  the  old  red  sandstone,  while  Prof.  Agassiz  had 
declared  that  he  did  not  believe  that  any  air-breathing  animals 
had  existed  before  the  new  red  sandstone.  The  discussion 
was  kept  up  for  several  years,  in  the  course  of  which  Dr.  Lea 
reiterated  and  maintained  his  position  that  the  fossil  was  what 
he  represented  it,  and  that  the  formation  in  which  it  was  found 
was  the  one  indicated  by  Rogers  as  No.  XI.  Its  interest  has 
since  been  diminished  by  the  discovery  and  authentication  of 
fossils  of  air-breathers  in  still  older  formations.  Another 
series  of  papers  of  peculiar  interest  was  that  concerning  the 
fossil  saurian  of  the  new  red  sandstone  (Clepsysaurus  Pennsyl- 
vanicus). 

Having  retired  from  business  in  1851,  Dr.  Lea  made  another 
visit  to  Europe  in  1852.  Many  of  the  incidents  of  his  previous 
visit  were  substantially  repeated,  but  in  large  part  with  natu- 
ralists of  another  generation  than  those  whom  he  had  met  be- 
fore. At  Paris  he  arranged  and  named  the  Unionida  in  the  cabi- 
nets of  the  eminent  conchologists  Boivin  and  Petit.  He  called 
upon  Dr.  Chenu  to  look  for  the  original  specimen  of  Mulleria 
of  Ferussac,  which  had  never  been  figured,  but  simply  described 
as  being  in  Lamarck's  collection.  "  He  told  Dr.  Chenu  that 
he  thought  it  must  have  been  mixed  with  the  Etheria,  of  which 
the  collection  had  many  specimens.  Dr.  Chenu  declared  this 


ISAAC   LEA.  265 

could  not  be  so,  or  he  would  have  seen  it.  As  soon  as  he 
pulled  out  the  drawer,  Dr.  Lea  saw  at  a  glance  the  identical 
specimen  which  Ferussac  had  described.  He  took  it  up  and 
declared  this  to  be  it.  Both  the  naturalists  were  surprised  and 
delighted.  .  .  .  Thus  Dr.  Lea's  theory  of  the  genus  Acostea,  of 
D'Orbigny,  was  complete — it  was  a  Mulleria"  At  Vienna  he 
showed  the  Austrian  naturalists  some  features  in  their  species 
and  specimens  which  had  escaped  their  eyes.  At  Berlin  he 
found  Humboldt  and  other  distinguished  men  of  science  much 
interested  in  what  was  going  on  in  geology  in  the  United 
States.  At  a  dinner  with  the  Philosophical  Club  in  London, 
Sir  Charles  Lyell  gave  him  credit  for  being  the  first  and  only 
one  who  had  yet  observed  an  air-breathing  animal  in  so  ancient 
a  rock  as  that  in  which  the  Sauropus  primcevus  occurred,  and 
added  that  the  Clepsysaurus  P ennsylvanicus  was  the  first  discov- 
ery of  bones  in  the  new  red  sandstone,  although  a  jaw  of  a 
similar  animal  had  since  been  found.  Colonel  Sabine  exhibited 
a  bottle  which  he  supposed  had  come  through  Behring  Strait 
from  Japan,  which  Dr.  Lea  was  able  to  claim  as  a  verification  of 
his  theory  of  a  west-to-east  Arctic  current. 

On  his  return  home  in  November,  1853,  Dr.  Lea  found  an 
accumulation  of  correspondence  and  specimens  awaiting  his 
attention  that  hardly  diminished,  so  incessant  were  the  fresh 
arrivals,  during  the  remainder  of  his  active  life,  or  for  twenty- 
five  years.  Among  his  new  Southern  and  Southwestern  corre- 
spondents was  Bishop  Elliott,  of  Georgia,  who  became  greatly 
interested  in  the  mollusca  of  that  State,  and  engaged  the  inter- 
est of  others  in  the  subject  and  in  collecting  shells.  The  scien- 
tific researches  of  Dr.  Lea  were  continued,  with  constant  pub- 
lications, until  1877,  when  a  sudden  illness  which  came  upon 
him  in  Southern  California  disabled  him  from  further  vigorous 
work.  He  still,  however,  continued  to  add  to  his  collections 
and  perform  such  work  upon  them  as  his  strength  would  allow. 
He  gave  much  attention  to  the  microscopic  examination  of 
quartz  crystals,  with  drawings  and  descriptions  of  the  inclu- 
sions and  markings  of  each,  so  that  Prof.  H.  Rosenbusch,  in 
his  work  on  the  subject,  mentioned  him  as  having  been  the 
first  in  America  to  enter  into  microscopic  mineralogy.  He 
had  engaged,  since  his  return  from  Europe,  in  other  branches 
of  natural  history  than  conchology.  The  elephant  folio 
edition  of  the  account  of  the  fossil  footmarks  near  Potts- 
18 


266  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ville  elicited  warm  commendation  for  the  beauty  of  its  execu- 
tion and  illustration.  In  1858  appeared  a  memoir  on  the  em- 
bryology of  the  UnionidcZ)  giving  descriptions  and  figures  of 
thirty-eight  species.  In  all  of  his  papers  he  described  eighteen 
hundred  and  seventy-two  species  of  mollusks  of  various  kinds, 
most  of  which  were  from  the  United  States.  The  series  was 
embodied  in  a  private  edition  of  thirteen  volumes,  with  three 
indexes,  which  the  author  distributed  among  men  of  science 
and  learned  societies.  Richard  Owen,  acknowledging  the  re- 
ceipt of  one  of  the  volumes,  said,  "  They  represent  a  kind  or 
class  of  labours  the  most  genuine  and  important  and  lasting, 
in  the  hard  endeavour  to  gain  a  knowledge  of  Nature."  Prof. 
Haidinger,  of  Vienna,  said,  on  a  similar  occasion,  that  his  work 
would  "  last  as  long  as  natural  science  shall  be  cultivated  by 
mankind.  The  more  it  is  compared  and  studied,  the  more 
appears  your  power  of  observation,  your  efforts  in  pursuing 
your  object,  your  steadiness  and  perseverance."  M.  A.  Boivin 
wrote,  "You  render  a  great  service  to  science  in  devoting  your 
time  to  the  classification  and  description  of  the  Unio"  About 
ten  thousand  individuals  were  displayed  in  Dr.  Lea's  cabinet 
of  Uniomdce,  so  arranged  that  each  could  be  separately  exam- 
ined, and,  in  many  instances,  with  a  sequence  from  the  young- 
est to  the  oldest,  so  as  to  exhibit  the  aspects  of  growth.  His 
other  cabinets  contained  nearly  a  thousand  specimens  of  quartz 
crystals,  nearly  five  hundred  of  corundum,  thirty-five  drawers 
of  the  mica  group,  and  several  hundred  sections  of  lamina  pre- 
pared for  the  microscope. 

In  1884  Dr.  Lea  was  able  to  receive  and  entertain  about 
two  hundred  members  of  the  British  Association  at  his  cottage 
at  Long  Branch ;  and  in  his  ninety-fourth  year  he  continued  in 
good  health,  with  his  mental  and  physical  faculties  unimpaired. 
His  death  occurred  December  8,  1886.  He  was  President  of 
the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  in  Philadelphia  from  1853  to 
1858,  and  was  President  of  the  American  Association  in  1860. 
The  list  given  in  his  Bibliography  of  the  society  honours  con- 
ferred upon  him  numbers  twenty-eight  titles,  and  concludes 
with  an  etc.  He  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from  Harvard 
while  absent  in  Europe  in  1852-53.  A  correspondent,  who  main- 
tained most  intimate  and  confidential  relations  with  Dr.  Lea  for 
more  than  twenty  years,  furnishes  a  sketch  of  his  personal  char- 
acter and  social  life,  from  which  we  quote  the  following  words: 


ISAAC   LEA.  267 

"  Possessing  a  mind  of  great  vigour  and  culture,  he  was  a 
most  genial  companion  to  those  whose  tastes  and  sympathies 
accorded  with  his  own.  He  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  the 
works  of  Nature ;  and  his  cultivated  mind  enabled  him  to  per- 
ceive many  qualities  and  properties  in  them,  the  beauties  of 
which  are  not  comprehended  by  a  less  gifted  observer.  Few 
objects  escaped  his  notice.  He  possessed,  in  an  eminent  de- 
gree,  a  prompt  and  keen  appreciation  of  the  sublime  and  of  the 
grotesque;  and  a  speedy  judgment  in  detecting  merit  or  fraud, 
affectation  or  sincerity. 

"  Dr.  Lea  habitually,  during  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury, spent  many  hours  of  the  night  in  his  studies  and  his  writ- 
ings, seldom  relinquishing  them  before  midnight.  These  night 
studies  were  continued,  with  little  intermission,  until  he  was 
nearly  eighty  years  old ;  and  they  were  gradually  and  finally 
abandoned  only  in  compliance  with  the  warnings  of  his  medical 
adviser.  Until  Dr.  Lea  became  enfeebled  with  age,  at  a  late 
period  in  his  life,  it  was  a  source  of  great  delight  to  him  to  col- 
lect mineral  specimens  in  Chester  and  Delaware  Counties  in 
Pennsylvania.  His  most  frequent  companions,  on  such  occa- 
sions, were  Mr.  William  W.  Jefferies,  formerly  of  West  Chester, 
and  the  writer.  No  ardent  schoolboy  manifested  more  enthu- 
siasm in  digging  than  he,  when  a  fair  prospect  was  afforded  for 
obtaining  specimens;  and  his  well-trained  eye  quickly  recog- 
nised a  specimen,  though  covered  with  soil.  He  never  permit- 
ted any  person  to  clean  his  specimens  excepting  himself ;  and 
that  operation  he  performed  with  great  patience,  in  the  most 
complete  manner,  in  order  to  display  all  the  beauties  which  the 
minerals  possessed.  He  was  familiar  with  nearly  all  the  min- 
eral localities  in  Eastern  Pennsylvania.  Many  years  ago  the 
writer  described  a  locality  for  minerals  in  Delaware  County, 
which  he  supposed  would  be  new  to  Dr.  Lea,  and  received  the 
following  reply  from  him  :  '  I  have  crawled  all  over  that  locali- 
ty, on  my  hands  and  knees,  a  half-dozen  times,  with  good  re- 
sults every  time.' 

"  Dr.  Lea  was  a  strong  admirer  of  gems,  and  his  familiarity 
with  precious  stones  was  so  great  that  he  was  considered  to  be 
one  of  the  best  judges  of  them  in  this  country.  He  devoted 
more  time  than  any  other  mineralogist  to  the  microscopic 
examination  of  the  precious  stones ;  the  results  from  which 
were  published,  at  various  times,  in  the  proceedings  of  the 


268  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

Academy  of  Natural  Sciences.  He  possessed  a  large  collec- 
tion of  precious  stones  from  all  the  important  localities  in  the 
world ;  and  copious  notes,  in  his  own  writing,  are  still  attached 
to  all  the  specimens. 

Another  friend  of  Dr.  Lea's  expresses  surprise  that,  in  all 
the  published  notices  of  him,  "  no  one  has  spoken  of  his  won- 
derful powers  of  observation  of  Nature  even  in  her  minutest 
forms.  You  will  pardon  me  if  I  say  that  I  consider  it  one  of 
his  highest  qualifications  as  a  man  of  science.  Nothing  ever 
escaped  his  quick  eye  in  the  field  or  by  the  roadside  when 
driving.  Every  tree,  shrub,  and  flower,  was  full  of  interest  to 
him,  from  which  he  ever  imparted  knowledge  to  his  friends. 
In  observing  crystalline  forms  I  believe  he  excelled  others." 

Another  friend  regards  him  from  a  different  point  of  view, 
and  says :  "  Something  of  his  great-heartedness  was  revealed 
to  even  the  casual  observer.  It  found  expression  in  form,  and 
feature,  and  voice.  Yet  it  was  by  those  who  knew  him  inti- 
mately that  the  social,  affectional  qualities  of  his  nature  were 
best  perceived  and  most  admired.  Inheriting  a  loving  spirit, 
and  receiving  the  gentle  impressions  of  a  Christian  home,  he 
never  lost  his  priceless  dower.  The  demands  of  successful,  en- 
larging business,  the  fondness  for  scientific  study,  the  passion 
for  scientific  discovery,  the  allurements  of  fame,  were  wholly 
insufficient  to  make  him  other  than  amiable  and  self-forgetful. 
His  home  was  the  source  and  centre  of  his  delight.  He  grate- 
fully acknowledged  his  indebtedness  to  those  on  whom  he  lav- 
ished his  regard.  During  all  the  years  in  which  he  used  even 
the  night-watches  for  his  investigations,  the  early  hours  of 
evening  were  spent,  with  free  and  joyous  mind,  in  the  midst 
of  his  family.  He  ever  took  more  from  himself  than  from 
others.  Hospitality  was  the  very  genius  of  his  house.  With 
gentlest,  heartiest  courtesy  his  friends  were  welcomed  to  his 
fireside  and  his  board.  To  those  of  scientific  turn  his  rare 
and  extensive  scientific  collections  were  opened  with  genuine 
delight.  For  those  whose  choice  was  in  other  directions,  pro- 
vision was  made  with  equal  care  and  gladness.  Toward  little 
children,  and  the  young  in  general,  his  sympathies  went  forth 
with  spontaneous  freedom.  He  delighted  to  show  to  childish 
eyes,  and  to  explain  to  childish  comprehension,  the  beauties 
and  marvels  of  Nature.  Especially  did  he  rejoice  in  giving 
encouragement  to  those  who  were  struggling  upward  against 


ISAAC   LEA.  269 

great  odds.  The  sight  of  such  aspiration  always  awakened 
his  enthusiastic  interest.  Not  a  few  who  to-day  occupy  posi- 
tions of  honour  and  usefulness  owe  their  success  to  his  appre- 
ciative, generous  help.  To  envy  his  heart  was  wholly  a  stran- 
ger, and  thus  his  friendships  with  men  of  science,  both  young 
and  old,  and  with  men  great  in  other  walks,  were  peculiarly 
tender  and  strong. 

"  In  truth  his  kindly  interest  included  whatever  affected  the 
welfare  of  the  race.  He  took  pleasure  in  all  honest  effort. 
He  exulted  in  all  honourable  achievement.  He  felt  that  he 
was  personally  indebted  to  whosoever  made  man  better  or 
more  wise.  In  all  social  problems  he  took  profound,  un- 
flagging interest.  He  sought  to  hold  in  view  the  progress  of 
humanity  in  every  land.  In  the  alliance  between  religion 
and  philanthropy  and  science  he  was  a  firm  believer.  He  was 
confident  that  truth  and  right  would  triumph  at  last.  To  his 
perception  the  laws  of  Nature  were  the  constancy  of  God's 
action,  and  Nature  itself  a  transcript  of  the  Eternal  Mind." 


LARDNER  VANUXEM. 

1792-1848. 

LARDNER  VANUXEM  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  July  23, 
1792,  and  died  at  his  home  near  Bristol,  Pa.,  January  25,  1848. 
His  father,  James  Vanuxem,  was  a  shipping  merchant  of  Phila- 
delphia, formerly  of  Dunkirk,  France — a  man  eminent  in  busi- 
ness and  highly  esteemed  as  a  citizen  and  in  social  and  domes- 
tic life.  His  name  was  originally  written  Van  Uxem;  the 
form  was  changed  by  him  partly  for  convenience  in  writing, 
but  largely  because  he  had  become  a  great  admirer  of  his 
adopted  country  and  wished  to  remove  the  foreign  stamp  from 
his  cognomen.  James  Vanuxem's  wife,  Rebecca,  was  a  daugh- 
ter of  Colonel  Elijah  Clarke,  of  New  Jersey.  Of  their  fifteen 
children  Lardner  was  the  eighth.  Seven  of  these  lived  to  long 
past  middle  life,  and  two  of  them  to  ninety  and  over.  His 
maternal  grandmother's  name  was  Lardner. 

Of  the  early  educational  course  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  there  is  no  record,  and  no  one  living  has  any  knowl- 
edge. It  is  thought  that  he  was  for  a  time  a  student  in  the 
Pennsylvania  University,  but  this  can  not  be  verified.  He  en- 
tered his  father's  counting-house  as  a  young  man,  but  business 
proved  very  distasteful  to  him,  his  mind  having  been  drawn 
previously  to  the  cultivation  of  chemistry  and  mineralogy. 
He  soon  determined  to  give  up  all  connection  with  business 
and  devote  himself  to  science.  Accordingly,  his  father  gave 
him  the  advantage  of  a  three  years'  residence  in  Paris,  at  the 
School  of  Mines,  where  he  became  the  associate  of  Prof.  Alex- 
andre  Brongniart,  the  Abb£  Haiiy,  and  other  distinguished 
men  then  prominent  as  professors  in  the  schools  of  that  great 
scientific  metropolis.  There  he  formed  an  intimate  acquaint- 
ance with  the  late  Prof.  Keating,  of  Philadelphia,  who  in  the 
same  walks  was  drinking  from  the  same  fountain  of  knowledge. 
Being  graduated  in  1819,  after  a  short  tour  through  some  dis- 

270 


LARDNER    VANUXEM. 


LARDNER   VANUXEM. 

tricts  of  France  investigating  the  rock  formations,  collecting 
specimens,  etc.,  he  returned  to  this  country  and  his  native  city, 
"  charged  with  all  the  improvements  of  recent  chemical  dis- 
coveries, and  the  advancement  in  all  its  kindred  arts."  But 
he  preferred  the  more  abstract  pursuit  of  his  studies  to  the 
application  of  his  knowledge  to  the  practical  arts. 

Almost  immediately  after  his  return  home,  he  was  invited 
by  President  Cooper,  of  Columbia  College,  in  South  Carolina, 
to  take  the  chair  of  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy  in  that  insti- 
tution. Becoming  a  member  of  the  president's  family,  a 
warm  friendship  was  formed  between  him  and  each  member 
thereof,  which  ended  only  with  their  lives. 

In  1826  he  retired  from  the  college  and  devoted  his  atten- 
tion exclusively  to  geology  as  a  profession.  During  that  year 
he  published  in  the  newspapers  and  in  Robert  Mill's  Statistics 
of  South  Carolina  reports  on  the  geology  of  the  State,  of 
which  he  made  a  survey  or  assisted  in  making  one,  having  pre- 
viously made  one  of  North  Carolina.  "He  also  made  quite 
a  collection  of  minerals  and  rocks  of  the  State,  which  were 
deposited  in  the  University  of  South  Carolina." 

He  then  visited  Mexico  to  examine  gold-mining  property, 
of  which  he  had  been  solicited  to  take  charge.  His  inspection 
soon  convinced  him  that  no  profitable  results  could  accrue  to 
the  owners,  and  he  advised  that  it  be  abandoned. 

In  i827-J28  he  studied  the  geological  features  of  the  States 
of  New  York,  Ohio,  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  made  his  report  to 
its  Legislature. 

It  was  either  at  this  time  or  immediately  after  his  return 
from  France  that  he  spent  much  time  in  geological  investiga- 
tions in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia  in  company  with  Dr.  Isaac 
Lea,  who  was  his  chosen  and  most  intimate  friend  and  associ- 
ate from  his  early  days  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Subsequently 
Dr.  Lea  honoured  him  by  naming  after  him  a  class  of  fresh- 
water shells  which  he  had  been  the  first  to  discover  and  make 
known.  It  is  from  Dr.  Isaac  Lea's  record  of  him  that  much  of 
the  information  in  connection  with  science,  contained  in  the 
first  part  of  this  sketch,  is  derived.  He  also  made  at  times  ex- 
tensive and  careful  investigations  in  the  franklinite  districts 
and  marl  beds  of  New  Jersey. 

In   1830,  having  returned  to  Philadelphia,  he  purchased  a 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

farm  near  Bristol,  Pa.,  and  soon  after  married  a  daughter  of 
his  neighbour,  John  Newbold,  Esq.,  of  Bloomsdale.  His  farm 
remained  the  home  of  himself  and  family  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life,  about  seventeen  years.  "While  he  often  assisted  with 
his  own  hands,"  says  Dr.  Lea,  "  in  the  cultivation  of  the  farm, 
he  never  at  any  moment  ceased  to  cultivate  his  already  ex- 
tensive acquirements  in  geology,  mineralogy,  and  chemistry, 
nor  to  add  to  a  collection  of  specimens  of  great  extent  and 
rareness." 

In  1836,  at  the  solicitation  of  Governor  Marcy,  he  entered 
upon  what  has  been  pronounced  "  one  of  the  most  magnificent 
investigations  ever  made  in  the  geological  developments  of 
any  country  or  by  any  government  " — the  geological  survey 
of  the  State  of  New  York.  The  results  are  given  in  Geology 
of  New  York,  Third  District,  Albany,  1842.  The  Third  Dis- 
trict, of  which  he  had  charge,  comprised  fourteen  counties  in 
the  central  part  of  the  State.  The  scope  of  the  work  per- 
formed by  Prof.  Vanuxem  and  his  colleagues  is  thus  indicated 
by  Prof.  James  Hall :  *  "  During  the  few  years  of  field  work  the 
New  York  geologists  had  harmonized  the  conflicting  views 
before  entertained  regarding  the  relations  of  the  geology 
of  the  eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  State  ;  they  had  traced 
the  boundaries  of  the  successive  geological  formations,  had 
shown  the  extent  and  limits  of  the  iron-bearing  strata,  and 
had  rectified  the  erroneous  views  which  had  been  held  till 
some  time  after  the  commencement  of  the  survey  regarding  the 
boundaries  and  distribution  of  the  salt-bearing  formation  of 
the  State.  They  had  also  shown  the  limits  of  the  granitic  for- 
mations and  their  associated  mineral  products,  the  thickness 
and  extent  of  all  the  limestone,  sandstone,  and  shale  forma- 
tions of  the  State,  and  had  definitely  settled  the  relations  of 
the  rocks  of  New  York  to  the  coal  measures  of  Pennsylvania 
and  the  geological  formations  of  the  Western  States." 

The  important  service  rendered  to  geological  science  in  the 
matter  of  nomenclature  by  the  members  of  this  survey  is  also 
described  by  Prof.  Hall,  as  follows  :  "  Since  there  was  no  possi- 
bility of  identifying  the  individual  rocks  and  groups  of  strata 
with  those  of  Europe,  as  described,  the  New  York  geologists 
were  compelled  to  give  names  to  the  different  members  of  the 

*  In  The  Public  Service  of  the  State  of  New  York. 


LARDNER  VANUXEM.  273 

series;  and  since  the  sandstones,  limestones,  slates,  and  shales 
are  so  similar  in  different  and  successive  groups,  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  give  descriptive  names  which  would  discriminate  the  one 
from  the  other.  Therefore  local  names  were  proposed  and 
adopted — as,  for  example,  Potsdam  sandstone,  Trenton  lime- 
stone, Niagara  limestone,  and  Niagara  shale  (the  two  latter,  with 
subordinate  beds  making  the  Niagara  group),  the  Medina  sand- 
stone, the  Onondaga  salt  group,  the  Hamilton,  Portage,  and 
Chemung  groups,  thus  giving  typical  localities  of  the  rock  instead 
of  descriptive  names.  This  method  or  system  of  nomenclature 
leaves  no  possibility  of  mistake  or  confusion  which  might  arise 
from  a  different  appreciation  of  descriptive  terms.  The  typical 
locality  always  remains  for  study,  comparison,  and  reference,  and 
there  need  be  no  difference  of  opinion  or  discussion  as  to  what 
was  intended  by  the  use  of  any  one  of  the  terms.  The  progress 
of  geological  science  in  the  country  is  greatly  indebted  to  this 
system  of  nomenclature,  and  to  the  absolute  working  out  of 
the  succession  of  the  groups,  and  the  members  of  the  same,  to 
which  this  system  of  nomenclature  has  been  applied." 

At  the  close  of  the  survey  he  spent  some  months  in  Albany 
(associated  with  Prof.  Hall)  in  arranging  the  State  geological 
cabinet,  the  specimens  of  which  he  had  assisted  in  collecting, 
and  out  of  which  has  grown  the  New  York  State  Museum. 
His  name  was  given  by  his  colleagues  to  several  species  of  the 
fossils  discovered  in  the  course  of  the  survey,  and  in  1858  Mr. 
Elkenah  Billings  named  a  genus  (discovered  in  Canada)  in  his 
honour. 

Prof.  Vanuxem's  private  collection  of  minerals  and  geolog- 
ical specimens  was  considered  at  the  time  of  his  death  as  "  the 
largest,  best  arranged,  and  most  valuable  private  collection  in 
this  country."  The  shell  and  mineral  specimens  were  fine  and 
many  of  them  very  beautiful,  but  it  was  the  geological  de- 
partment, with  its  numerous  specimens  of  rock  and  fossil  and 
the  perfect  arrangement  of  the  whole,  giving  to  the  investi- 
gator, in  the  best  manner  possible,  the  information  sought,  and 
all  arranged  by  his  own  hands  and  methods,  that  constituted 
its  chief  value.  It  was  constantly  visited  by  eminent  scientists 
both  of  this  country  and  from  abroad.  Prof.  Agassiz,  Sir 
Charles  Lyell,  and  Dr.  Nicolay  were  drawn  to  it  on  more  than 
one  occasion.  Those  who  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  it  most 
frequently,  both  from  interest  in  it  and  its  possessor,  seemed  to 


274  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

be  filled  with  enthusiasm,  of  whom  were  Dr.  Emmons,  Dr.  Beck, 
Prof.  Timothy  Conrad,  Dr.  Locke,  of  Cincinnati,  and  many 
others.  On  one  occasion,  while  engaged  on  the  United  States 
Coast  Survey,  Dr.  Locke  brought  all  his  paraphernalia  of  work 
and  his  assistants,  pitching  his  tents  in  a  field  on  the  Vanuxem 
farm  near  the  house ;  there  he  remained  for  some  weeks,  con- 
tinuing his  work,  at  the  same  time  availing  himself  of  the  op- 
portunity of  study  in  and  examination  of  the  cabinet,  making 
numerous  casts  of  the  specimens,  especially  the  rare  fossils. 

After  his  death,  Prof.  Vanuxem's  collection  was  purchased 
by  W.  M.  Stewart,  President  of  Masonic  College  at  Clarksville, 
Tenn.  It  was  reported  that  during  the  civil  war  the  collection 
was  dissipated  and  destroyed,  but  this  rumour  could  not  have 
been  wholly  true,  for  part  if  not  all  of  the  specimens  are  still 
there.  In  May,  1892,  one  of  Prof.  Vanuxem's  daughters  was 
applied  to  by  a  geologist  for  information  as  to  the  whereabouts 
of  this  collection,  as  it  contained,  he  said,  the  only  known 
specimen  of  a  certain  South  Carolina  fossil,  which  he  very  much 
desired  to  examine. 

Prof.  Vanuxem  was  a  member  of  and  assisted  in  the  organ- 
ization and  establishment  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Nat- 
ural Sciences  and  other  scientific  associations. 

"  It  was  the  habit  of  those  connected  with  the  New  York 
survey  to  meet  at  Albany  at  the  end  of  each  field  season,  for 
the  purpose  of  comparing  observations  and  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  each  other.  In  the  autumn  of  1838  Prof.  Van- 
uxem suggested  that  an  invitation  be  extended  to  the  geolo- 
gists of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia  for  the  purpose  of  devising 
and  adopting  a  geological  nomenclature  that  might  be  accept- 
able to  all  those  who  were  then  engaged  in  the  State  surveys, 
and  thus  become  the  nomenclature  of  American  geology.  This 
meeting  was  finally  held  in  1840,  and  then  the  Association  of 
American  Geologists  was  organized,  which  is  now  succeeded 
by  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science." 

Some  few  years  after  the  close  of  the  New  York  survey, 
Prof.  Vanuxem  was  solicited  by  Prof.  Henry,  of  the  Smithsoni- 
an Institution,  at  Washington,  to  become  his  associate  in  charge 
of  that  institution.  Although  it  would  have  been  a  work  in 
many  ways  congenial,  the  offer  was  declined,  for  various  rea- 
sons that  he  deemed  good  ones. 

In  addition  to  the  report  that  has  been  mentioned,  and  nu- 


LARDNER   VANUXEM.  275 

merous  papers  on  scientific  subjects  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Science,  he  published  An  Essay  on  the  Ultimate 
Principles  of  Chemistry,  Natural  Philosophy,  and  Physiology 
(Philadelphia,  1827) ;  but  it  is  his  Report  of  the  New  York  Sur- 
vey which  it  is  said  "  will  remain  his  monument,  and  on  which 
the  reputation  of  his  scientific  attainments  is  based." 

It  would  seem  as  though  a  man  as  devoted  to  science  as  the 
subject  of  this  sketch  would  have  his  time  and  thoughts  com- 
pletely absorbed  thereby,  but  not  so  in  this  case.  The  investi- 
gating turn  of  his  mind  prompted  the  examination  of  abstruse 
subjects,  and  to  him  the  Scriptures  presented  an  unlimited 
field.  His  careful  scrutiny  of  the  sacred  writings  and  close 
study  of  all  the  extant  commentators  upon  them  resulted  in  an 
immense  pile  of  manuscript  books  which  he  left  as  a  monu- 
ment of  his  interest  in  the  subject,  untiring  industry,  persever- 
ance, and  love  of  research,  if  nothing  more.  Although  trained 
in  the  Presbyterian  faith  by  his  mother,  Prof.  Vanuxem  had 
adopted,  and  expressed  in  these  writings,  views  which  were  too 
broad  and  too  far  in  advance  of  the  time  to  be  considered  "  or- 
thodox." 

Every  attempt  to  extend  the  bounds  of  human  knowledge 
or  to  give  the  benefit  of  enlightened  direction  to  the  activities 
of  mankind  aroused  his  interest.  His  attention  was  thus  drawn 
to  the  so-called  new  religions,  Mormonism  and  Millerism,  as 
they  arose ;  to  the  religious  teachings  of  Channing  and  Emer- 
son ;  and  to  the  study  of  Egyptian  antiquities.  He  studied 
phrenology,  and  became  a  believer  in  its  theories.  At  a  time 
when  the  subject  had  hardly  been  thought  of  he  was  a  strong 
advocate  of  the  emancipation  of  woman  from  the  narrow  sphere 
of  activity  to  which  she  had  been  confined.  General  literature 
did  not  have  the  absorbing  interest  for  him  that  scientific  sub- 
jects did.  As  for  music,  it  appeared  to  have  no  charms  in  his 
eyes;  he  declared  that  far  too  much  time  was  wasted  over  it. 
This  fact  seems  rather  unaccountable,  as  all  his  brothers  and 
sisters  were  devoted  to  the  art,  and  some  of  them  proficient  in  it, 

For  Benjamin  Franklin's  character  and  achievements  he  had 
the  highest  admiration  ;  honouring  himself  and  his  place  by 
naming  it  after  him  "  Franklin  Farm,"  and  the  entrance  hall  of 
the  house  was  adorned  for  many  years  by  a  bust  of  the  great 
man  ;  attention  often  being  called  to  it  as  "  the  presiding  gen- 
ius of  the  place." 


2;6  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

To  complete  the  picture,  even  of  a  man  of  science,  the  social 
and  domestic  side  of  his  character  and  life  as  well  as  daily  oc- 
cupations must  not  be  omitted.  He  was  kind  and  gentle  in 
manner  and  speech,  his  somewhat  quick  temper  being  under 
complete  control.  Though  his  children  stood  rather  in  awe  of 
him,  as  did  many  others  (of  his  subordinates),  he  ruled  them  by 
affection  and  "  treated  them  as  intelligent  beings,"  as  he  said, 
the  result  being  the  most  implicit  obedience. 

His  active  mind  was  engaged  frequently  upon  subjects  re- 
quiring deep  thought  while  his  hands  were  executing  works  of 
minor  importance.  On  being  asked  why  he  did  not  plow  his 
own  fields,  he  would  reply  that  he  never  liked  to  engage  in  any 
manual  labour  that  absorbed  the  whole  attention,  as  he  desired 
to  keep  his  mind  free  for  other  matters.  His  knowledge  of 
chemistry  was  brought  into  use  in  the  cultivation  of  his  farm — 
much  to  the  amusement  of  his  less  enlightened  neighbours,  who 
did  not  believe  in  "  book  farming."  He  had  learned  the  use  of 
carpenter's  tools  when  a  boy,  for  his  father,  in  order  to  keep 
his  sons  off  the  street,  had  wisely  provided  them  interesting 
occupation  at  home  by  fitting  up  a  shop  for  their  use.  Prof. 
Vanuxem  turned  his  skill  to  account  in  making  the  cases  and 
chests  of  drawers  in  his  cabinet — a  room  measuring  about  fif- 
teen by  twenty-five  or  thirty  feet — and  otherwise  as  occasion 
required. 

"  Always  cheerful,  intelligent,  bright,  and  full  of  anecdote," 
it  has  been  said  of  him,  "  he  was  gladly  welcomed  into  every 
social  circle."  Both  frugality  and  generosity  were  prominent 
traits  of  his  character.  More  than  once  did  he  take  into  his 
household,  for  indefinite  periods,  young  relatives  who  needed 
assistance.  His  table  was  abundantly  supplied  and  his  house 
was  well  furnished  with  comforts,  but  extravagance  in  any- 
thing he  strongly  deprecated,  especially  in  dress.  "  Love  of 
dress,"  he  used  to  say,  "  had  caused  more  sin  than  anything 
else  in  the  world." 

Careful  and  neat  to  an  extreme  himself  in  his  habits  and 
arrangements,  he  exacted  the  same  from  those  around  him  as 
far  as  possible.  Of  the  courtesies  and  conventionalties  he  was 
most  scrupulously  observant,  and  was  greatly  annoyed  by  any 
breach  thereof,  as  when  any  of  his  Quaker  neighbours,  coming 
in,  would  sit  with  hat  on  in  the  house.  Obedience  to  the 
"  golden  rule  "  appeared  to  be  the  guide  of  his  life,  as  he  was 


LARDNER   VANUXEM. 


277 


wont  frequently  to  hold  it  up  to  his  children,  that  they  should 
make  it  theirs. 

He  had  the  reputation  of  being  visionary  and  full  of  unten- 
able theories.  This  may  have  been  true  to  some  extent,  and 
it  would  certainly  have  appeared  to  be  the  case  even  if  not  so, 
for  it  was  often  said  by  his  scientific  contemporaries  that  "  he 
lived  too  soon,  being  many  years  in  advance  of  his  times ;  peo- 
ple were  not  prepared  for  his  discoveries  and  theories,  and 
therefore  not  able  to  appreciate  them,  even  the  scientific 
world."  He  was  considered  also  "  a  very  peculiar  man,"  which 
was  not  surprising,  in  view  of  his  independence  of  general 
opinion,  in  following  out  what  he  considered  the  right  or  best 
course  in  any  matter.  As  an  illustration  might  be  given  a 
description  of  his  equipment  for  the  New  York  survey.  It 
consisted  of  a  four-wheeled  wagon  with  buggy  top,  covered 
with  white  canvas  for  coolness,  with  a  box  at  the  back  large 
enough  to  hold  his  requirements  for  the  season,  and  working 
implements.  This  was  drawn  by  a  large,  rusty-brown  mule, 
very  far  from  handsome,  but  strong,  trusty,  faithful,  with  pow- 
ers of  endurance  much  beyond  those  of  a  horse.  He  was  often 
not  a  little  amused  at  the  comments  and  ridicule  that  this 
equipage  provoked,  but  it  was  the  thing  that  best  answered  his 
purpose,  so  he  went  on  his  way  and  let  them  laugh. 

The  necessity  for  turning  his  acquirements  to  some  pecu- 
niary advantage,  was  one  of  the  inducements  for  Prof.  Van- 
uxem  to  engage  in  the  New  York  survey.  The  working  for 
"  pay "  was  one  of  the  things  for  which  he  had  a  great  aver- 
sion, "a  feeling,"  as  he  writes,  "he  never  could  conquer."  He 
wanted  to  be  able  to  work  for  the  public  without  charge  and 
not  feel  that  his  time  belonged  to  some  one  who  had  a  right 
to  its  control ;  he  was  too  conscientious  to  feel  any  freedom 
when  under  bonds  of  this  sort. 

Physically  Prof.  Vanuxem  was  below  the  average  in  height, 
rather  slightly  built,  active,  energetic,  with  great  powers  of  en- 
durance, and  persevering  in  whatever  he  undertook.  He  was 
always  in  good  health,  being  "  temperate  in  all  things,"  and, 
though  often  furnishing  wine  for  his  guests,  declining  the  use 
of  it  himself,  as  he  said  he  wished  to  keep  his  head  always  per- 
fectly clear.  To  tobacco  in  all  its  forms  he  had  a  great  aver- 
sion. One  of  his  theories  was  that  human  life  was  much  too 
short,  either  because  of  too  much  luxury  and  self-indulgence 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

on  the  one  hand,  or  lack  of  proper  sustenance  on  the  other. 
By  striking  the  happy  medium,  he  believed  life  might  be  indefi- 
nitely prolonged.  His  last  illness  was  of  about  three  weeks' 
duration,  and  caused  by  a  carbuncle  on  the  upper  lip.  After  a 
time  the  brain  became  affected  and  unconsciousness  ensued, 
which  continued  uninterruptedly  until  he  passed  away,  having 
seen  but  fifty-five  and  a  half  years.  This  early  ending  of  his 
life  seems  like  the  irony  of  Fate !  The  many  letters  received 
by  the  family  after  his  death,  from  those  with  whom  he  had 
been  associated  in  his  scientific  career,  filled  with  such  heart- 
felt expressions  of  sorrow  and  regret  for  the  personal  loss  and 
the  loss  to  science,  attest  the  estimation  in  which  he  was 
held  by  them  all. 

The  original  of  the  likeness  accompanying. this  sketch  was  a 
daguerreotype — the  only  portrait  of  any  kind  ever  made  of 
Prof.  Vanuxem.  This  was  taken  in  a  group  in  1846,  in  the 
early  days  of  the  art,  when  the  arrangement  of  dress  and  pose 
was  not  understood  so  well  as  afterward.  Hence  the  eyes, 
said  to  have .  been  his  best  features,  are  unfortunately  cast 
down,  as  he  was  told  to  look  at  the  child  seated  on  his  knee. 
The  portrait  is  like  him,  but  has  not  the  pleasing  aspect  his 
countenance  always  wore. 


ELISHA   MITCHELL. 


ELISHA   MITCHELL. 


A  MONUMENT  of  modest  size  and  style,  standing  in  Yancey 
County,  North  Carolina,  on  the  highest  point  of  land  in  the 
eastern  United  States,  marks  the  grave  of  the  man  who  first 
determined,  by  measurement,  the  culminating  point  of  the  Ap- 
palachian range  —  a  man,  too,  whose  local  fame  as  a  student  of 
natural  history,  a  hardy  explorer,  and  a  teacher,  was  pre-emi- 
nent. Not  the  little  obelisk  of  bronze  —  that  only  shows  the 
exact  spot  where  his  body  lies  —  but  the  mountain  on  which  it 
stands,  whose  supremacy  over  all  the  peaks  east  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains  he  established,  and  in  the  exploration  of  which  he 
lost  his  life,  is  the  true  monument  of  Prof.  Elisha  Mitchell. 

Elisha  Mitchell  was  born  in  Washington,  Conn.,  August  19, 
1793.  His  father,  Abner  Mitchell,  was  a  farmer;  and  his 
mother,  Phebe  Eliot,  was  a  descendant,  in  the  fifth  generation, 
from  John  Eliot,  the  Apostle  to  the  Indians.  His  great-grand- 
father, the  Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  M.  D.  and  D.  D.,  for  many  years 
minister  at  Killingworth,  Conn.,  was  distinguished  for  his 
knowledge  of  history,  natural  philosophy,  botany,  and  min- 
eralogy, no  less  than  as  a  sturdily  orthodox  theologian  ;  was  a 
correspondent  of  Dr.  Franklin  and  Bishop  Berkeley,  and  was 
awarded  a  gold  medal  by  the  Royal  Society  for  a  discovery  in 
the  manufacture  of  iron.  Young  Mitchell  inherited  many  of 
the  qualities  of  the  Eliots,  and  particularly  of  this  ancestor. 
At  four  years  of  age  he  acquitted  himself  with  credit  in  a 
school  exhibition.  At  a  little  latter  age  he  was"  fond  of  col- 
lecting his  playmates  in  a  group  and  telling  them  what  he  had 
read  in  his  books,  or  explaining  the  pictures  to  them.  He  was 
prepared  for  college  at  the  classical  school,  in  Bethlehem,  of  the 
Rev.  Azel  Backus,  D.  D.,  afterward  President  of  Hamilton  Col- 
lege. He  was  graduated  from  Yale  College  in  1813,  in  the 
same  class  with  Denison  Olmsted,  afterward  his  associate  in 

5579 


28o  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  University  of  North  Carolina,  and  with  other  persons  who 
subsequently  became  conspicuously  known.  He  was  then  en- 
gaged as  a  teacher  in  Dr.  Eigenbrodt's  boys'  school  at  Ja- 
maica, L.  I.;  in  the  spring  of  1815  he  took  charge  of  a  school 
for  girls  at  New  London,  Conn.,  where  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  lady  who  was  afterward  his  wife ;  and  in  1816  he  was 
appointed  a  tutor  in  Yale  College.  While  thus  engaged,  he 
and  Prof.  Olmsted  were  recommended  by  the  Rev.  Sereno  E. 
Dwight,  son  of  President  Dwight,  Chaplain  of  the  United 
States  Senate,  to  Judge  Gaston,  member  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives from  North  Carolina,  who  appears  to  have  been 
looking  around  for  candidates  as  suitable  persons  for  professor- 
ships in  the  University  of  North  Carolina,  at  Chapel  Hill.  Mr. 
Mitchell  was  chosen  Professor  of  Mathematics,  and  Mr.  Olm- 
sted Professor  of  Chemistry,  to  which  a  chair  was  then  for  the 
first  time  assigned.  Having  studied  for  a  short  time  at  An- 
dover  Theological  Seminary  and  received  a  license  to  preach, 
Mr.  Mitchell  removed  to  North  Carolina,  and  reaching  Chapel 
Hill  on  the  last  day  of  January,  1818,  immediately  began  his 
work  as  a  professor.  Here  he  remained,  continuing  at  his  post 
without  intermission  of  considerable  length,  for  thirty-nine 
years,  or  till  the  end  of  his  life. 

In  the  fall  of  the  next  year  Prof.  Mitchell  returned  to  Con- 
necticut to  be  married  to  Miss  Maria  S.  North,  daughter  of 
Elisha  North,  M.  D.,  of  New  London.  The  bride's  letters  de- 
scribing her  journey  to  North  Carolina  give  some  sidelights 
on  the  life  and  methods  of  travel  of  the  time.  The  marriage 
took  place  on  Friday,  the  choice  of  the  day  having  been  partly 
made  as  a  demonstration  against  a  popular  superstition,  and 
partly  determined  by  circumstances.  The  journey  of  eight 
hundred  and  fifteen  miles  to  Chapel  Hill  occupied  ten  days. 
On  the  removal  of  Prof.  Olmsted  in  1825  to  accept  a  professor- 
ship in  Yale  College,  Prof.  Mitchell  was  transferred  to  the 
chair  he  had  filled,  and  became,  and  continued  till  the  end  of 
his  life,  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  and  Geology. 

Dr.  Albert  R.  Ledoux,  in  a  historical  sketch  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  North  Carolina,  published  in  the  University  Magazine 
for  October,  1890,  speaking  of  the  intellectual  giants  in  its  fac- 
ulty who  have  given  reputation  to.  the  institution,  and  whose 
contributions  to  letters  and  science  made  them  prominent 
among  the  learned  men  of  their  day,  observes  that  Prof.  Mitch- 


ELISHA   MITCHELL.  28 1 

ell  was  the  most  noted  of  them  all.  During  his  occupation  of 
the  chair  of  Mathematics,  the  doctrine  of  fluxions,  or  the  cal- 
culus, was  introduced  into  the  course,  and  the  standard  of  at- 
tainment was  raised  in  other  branches  of  the  department.  His 
transfer  to  the  chair  of  Natural  Science  was  welcome  to  him. 
Even  while  a  Professor  of  Mathematics,  according  to  Prof. 
Charles  Phillips,  he  had  made  frequent  botanical  excursions  in 
the  country  round  Chapel  Hill ;  and  after  settling  himself  in 
his  new  chair  he  extended  and  multiplied  these  excursions; 
"  so  that  when  he  died  he  was  known  in  almost  every  part  of 
North  Carolina,  and  he  left  no  one  behind  him  better  acquainted 
with  its  mountains,  valleys,  and  plains  ;  its  birds,  beasts,  bugs, 
fishes,  and  shells ;  its  trees,  flowers,  vines,  and  mosses ;  its 
rocks,  stones,  sands,  clays,  and  marls.  Although  in  Silliman's 
Journal,  and  in  other  periodicals  less  prominent,  but  circu- 
lating more  widely  nearer  home,  he  published  many  of  his 
discoveries  concerning  North  Carolina,  yet  it  is  to  be  re- 
gretted that  he  did  not  print  more  and  in  a  more  permanent 
form.  It  would  doubtless  have  thus  appeared  that  he  knew, 
and  perhaps  justly  estimated  the  worth  of,  many  facts  which 
much  later  investigators  have  proclaimed  as  their  own  remark- 
able discoveries.  But  the  information  that  he  gathered  was 
for  his  own  enjoyment  and  for  the  instruction  of  his  pupils. 
On  these  he  lavished,  to  their  utmost  capacity  for  reception, 
the  knowledge  that  he  had  gathered  by  his  widely  extended 
observations,  and  had  stored  up  mainly  in  the  recesses  of  his 
own  singularly  retentive  memory."  The  notes  of  his  excur- 
sions, which  are  recorded  in  a  series  of  blank  books  kept  for 
the  purpose,  give  revelations  of  the  habits  of  the  author's  mind  J 
they  chronicle  his  walks  over  farms  which  he  names,  and  ob- 
servations of  individual  plants  and  other  objects  in  specified 
localities.  "By  such  a  rock,"  writes  Mrs.  C.  P.  Spencer,  in  an 
article  of  reminiscences,  "  in  such  a  field,  is  a  plant  that  he 
must  identify.  By  Scott's  Hole,  near  the  willow  is  a  Carex 
that  he  must  watch.  March  29,  1821,  he  finds  yellow  jessa- 
mine in  bloom  in  Mrs.  Hooper's  garden,  and  '  in  great  abun- 
dance on  the  creek  below  Merritt's  mill.'  .  .  .  May  30,  1821, 
occurs  this  note,  that  he  had  that  day  found  the  last  of  the 
twelve  varieties  of  oak  that  are  within  two  miles  of  the  univer- 
sity ;  then  follows  a  list  of  the  oaks  and  notes  of  their  situa- 
tion. ...  In  the  third  week  of  April,  1824,  he  began  a  new 
19 


282  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

Diary  of  Mosses,  and  hunts  the  Liskea  hypnum  through  a  dozen 
authorities,  to  be  sure  of  it.  He  had  the  true  scholar's  disdain 
of  taking  anything  at  second  hand.  Such  pages  are  diversified 
with  '  Hints  for  the  good  instruction  of  the  class ' ;  or,  *  Points 
to  be  meditated  respecting  the  nature  of  light.'  "  In  the  pref- 
ace to  one  of  these  notebooks — written  in  French — a  plan  of 
study  was  laid  down  for  each  week.  So  many  hours  were 
to  be  given  to  mathematics,  so  many  to  Latin  and  Greek,  so 
many  to  history,  so  many  to  the  Spanish  language  and  to 
botany ;  and  the  resolution  appears  that,  till  such  an  hour,  "  I 
will  not  touch  one  book  of  belles-lettres."  He  thus  visited  the 
plants  and  rocks  of  the  State  in  their  own  homes,  and  became 
one  of  the  best  authorities  in  the  country  respecting  them. 
The  expeditions  which  he  conducted  into  all  parts  of  North 
Carolina,  examining  the  flora  and  rocks  and  strata,  made  him  the 
best  physical  geographer  the  State  had  ever  had.  The  infor- 
mation he  gathered  in  this  way  was  used  profusely  in  the  instruc- 
tion of  his  classes,  and  they  always  reaped  greater  benefits  from 
his  acquisitions  than  any  other  part  of  the  community.  While 
he  wrote  occasionally  for  the  scientific  papers,  "  he  read  more 
than  he  observed,  and  observed  more  than  he  wrote."  Among 
the  articles  contributed  by  him  to  Silliman's  Journal  are  named, 
in  a  memoir  published  in  the  local  paper  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  those  on  the  low  country  of  North  Carolina,  1828;  on 
the  Geology  of  the  Gold  Regions  of  North  Carolina,  1829;  on 
Welther's  tube  of  safety,  with  notices  of  other  subjects,  1830; 
on  the  causes  of  winds  and  storms,  1831 ;  Analysis  of  the  Pro- 
togaea  of  Leibnitz,  1831 ;  and  notices  of  the  high  mountains  in 
North  Carolina,  1839.  Such  articles  were  contributed  at  inter- 
vals till  the  time  of  his  death.  He  also  prepared  for  use  in 
his  classes  a  Manual  of  Chemistry,  the  second  edition  of  which 
was  passing  through  the  press  when  he  died ;  a  Manual  of 
Geology,  illustrated  by  a  geological  map  of  North  Carolina ; 
and  Facts  and  Dates  respecting  the  History,  Geography,  etc., 
of  Palestine. 

Prof.  Mitchell  was  an  industrious  reader,  particularly  on  all 
subjects  that  were  directly  or  indirectly  connected  with  his 
professorship,  and  had  a  knowledge  of  geography  that  was  re- 
garded as  wonderful.  At  a  time  when  students  were  more  iso- 
lated from  one  another  than  they  are  now,  and  facilities  for 
exchange  of  news  were  not  so  abundant,  he  was  at  great  pains 


ELISHA  MITCHELL. 


283 


to  keep  up  with  the  advance  on  every  side.  With  all  this  he 
was  of  conservative  tendency,  and  not  disposed  to  accept  the 
new  too  hastily.  As  a  teacher,  Prof.  Phillips  says,  "he  took 
great  pains  in  inculcating  the  first  principles  of  science.  These 
he  set  forth  distinctly  in  the  very  beginning  of  his  instructions, 
and  he  never  let  his  pupils  lose  sight  of  them.  When  brilliant 
and  complicated  phenomena  were  presented  for  their  contem- 
plation, he  sought  not  to.  excite  their  wonder  or  magnify  him- 
self in  their  eyes  as  a  man  of  surprising  acquirements,  or  as  a 
most  dexterous  manipulator,  but  to  exhibit  such  instances  as 
most  clearly  set  forth  fundamental  laws,  and  demanded  the  ex- 
ercise of  a  skilful  analysis.  Naturally  of  a  cautious  disposition, 
such  had  been  his  own  experience,  and  so  large  was  his  ac- 
quaintance with  the  experience  of  others,  that  he  was  not  easily 
excited  when  others  announced  unexpected  discoveries  among 
the  laws  and  the  phenomena  which  he  had  been  studying  for 
years  as  they  appeared.  While  others  were  busy  in  prophesy- 
ing revolutions  in  social  or  political  economy,  he  was  quietly 
awaiting  the  decisions  of  experience.  He  constantly  taught 
his  pupils  that  there  were  things  wherein  they  must  turn  from 
the  voice  of  the  charmer,  charm  he  ever  so  sweetly.  His  influ- 
ence on  the  developments  of  science  was  eminently  conserva- 
tive, for  he  loved  the  old  landmarks." 

Prof.  Mitchell's  general  fame  rests  chiefly  on  his  work  in 
the  exploration  of  the  Black  Mountain  of  North  Carolina,  a 
spur  which,  standing  between  the  main  mountain  ridges,  had 
been  regarded  by  persons  best  acquainted  with  the  region, 
without  knowing  its  exact  height,  as  the  culminating  point  of 
the  Appalachian  system.  The  two  Michauxes  had  remarked, 
about  the  beginning  of  the  century — the  elder  in  1799,  and  the 
younger  in  1802 — the  presence  of  Alpine  plants  there  that  were 
not  found  again  south  of  Canada,  and  inferred  that  the  peak 
must  therefore  surpass  all  its  fellows  in  height.  John  C.  Cal- 
houn  had  come  to  a  similar  conclusion,  from  the  observation  of 
the  streams  that  had  their  source  on  the  mountain.  Meeting 
the  Hon.  David  L.  Swain,  who  was  afterward  President  of  the 
university,  in  1825,  Mr.  Calhoun  congratulated  him  on  being  of 
the  same  height  with  Washington  and  himself,  and  on  their 
both  residing  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  highest  mountain  on 
the  continent  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  When  asked  the 
meaning  of  his  remark,  Mr.  Calhoun  referred  to  the  map  as 


284  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

showing  that  in  this  group  were  to  be  found  the  highest  sources 
of  one  of  the  great  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi,  the  Tennes- 
see ;  of  the  Kanawha,  flowing  northward  into  the  Ohio  ;  and  of 
the  Santee  and  Pedee,  which  run  directly  to  the  Atlantic — all 
considerable  rivers  rinding  their  way  to  the  sea  in  opposite  di- 
rections. The  story  was  told  by  Governor  Swain  to  Prof. 
Mitchell  in  1830,  during  an  excursion  on  the  Cape  Fear  River. 
Although  Mr.  Calhoun's  reasoning  was  defective,  his  observa- 
tion, coupled  with  the  opinion  expressed  on  other  grounds  by 
the  Michauxes,  impressed  Prof.  Mitchell,  and  aroused  a  desire 
in  him  to  know  more  of  the  Black  Mountain,  and  to  determine 
its  height.  The  opportunity  came  in  1835.  The  memorandum- 
book  in  which  the  notes  of  his  visit  in  that  year  are  recorded 
contains  such  entries  as  "Objects  of  Attention — Geology;  Bot- 
any ;  Height  of  the  Mountains ;  Positions  by  Trigonometry ; 
Woods,  as  the  Fir,  Spruce,  Magnolia,  Birch ;  Fish,  especially 
Trout;  Springs;  Biography,"  etc.  He  was  accompanied  by 
his  daughter,  and  carried  "  two  barometers,  a  quadrant,  a  vascu- 
lum  for  plants,  and  a  hammer  for  rocks."  The  incidents  of  this 
expedition,  the  details  of  which  became  important  in  the  case 
of  a  controversy  that  afterward  arose,  have  been  summarized 
and  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  witnesses  in  an  article  which 
Prof.  Charles  Phillips  contributed  to  the  North  Carolina  Uni- 
versity Magazine  for  March,  1858.  Having  made  some  obser- 
vations of  the  geological  formations  of  the  Grandfather  Moun- 
tain, and  measured  some  heights  near  Morgantown,  Prof. 
Mitchell  crossed  the  Blue  Ridge  and  fixed  his  headquarters  at 
Bakersville,  in  Yancey  County,  near  the  foot  of  Roan  Moun- 
tain. From  here  he  made  several  excursions  in  a  country  which 
was  then  nearly  in  the  condition  of  the  primitive  wilderness. 
Being  told  that  Yeates's  Mountain  was  the  highest  of  the  group, 
he  climbed  it,  accompanied  by  two  guides,  on  the  2;th  of  July, 
1835 — a  day  so  clear  and  serene  "  that  all  the  main  eminences 
of  the  Black  were  clearly  visible."  He  found  that  this  moun- 
tain was  overtopped  by  several  of  the  peaks  around  it,  the  most 
of  which  confronted  him  in  an  arc  so  curved  that  it  was  easy 
to  decide  which  of  them  was  the  highest.  He  made  the  entry : 
"  Top  of  Yeates's  knob  ;  N.  E.  knob  of  Black  bore  N.  46^  E. 
Counting  from  Young's  knob  :  one  low  one  ;  one  low  one;  two 
in  one,  the  southernmost  pointed ;  a  round  knob,  same  height ; 
a  double  knob  ;  then  the  highest ;  then  a  long,  low  place  with  a 


ELISHA   MITCHELL.  285 

knob  in  it ;  then  a  round  three-knobby  knob,  equal  to  the  high- 
est, after  which  the  ridge  descends."  This  verbal  account  tal- 
lies exactly  with  a  profile  of  the  range  drawn  by  Prof.  Guyot 
when  standing  on  the  same  Yeates's  Peak  in  1856.  On  the 
next  day,  July  28th,  Prof.  Mitchell  and  his  guides  visited  the 
peak  which  had  been  determined  by  the  Yeates's  Mountain  ob- 
servation to  be  the  highest ;  according  to  the  testimony  of  the 
guide,  William  Wilson,  they  "  came  to  the  top  at  a  small  glade, 
not  more  than  a  quarter  of  an  acre  in  extent,  and,  turning  to 
the  right,  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  we  ar- 
rived on  the  top  of  the  main  highest  peak,  being  the  same  one 
as  we  thought  that  we  had  selected  from  Yeates's  knob  the  day 
before.  Then  Dr.  Mitchell  climbed  into  the  highest  balsam  he 
could  find,  and  took  his  observations.  After  consulting  his 
barometer,  he  said  that  it  was  the  highest  point  that  he  had 
found  yet." 

Some  of  the  immediate  results  of  the  excursions  from  Ba- 
kersville,  including  geological  and  botanical  observations,  were 
published  in  the  Raleigh  Register  of  November  3,  1835.  The 
height  of  the  mountain  was  calculated  as  compared  with  that 
of  Morganton,  which  was  then  supposed  to  be  968  feet  above 
the  sea.  The  mountain  being  found  to  be  5,508  feet  above 
that  point,  its  height  was  given  as  6,476  feet,  or  200  feet  less 
than  the  real  height.  The  discrepancy  became  afterward  a 
source  of  confusion,  and  has  been  used  to  support  the  allega- 
tion that  the  peak  Dr.  Mitchell  climbed  that  day  was  not  the 
real  highest  peak.  But  it  was  explained  and  vanished  when  the 
railroad  surveys  showed  that  Morganton  depot  is  really  1,169 
feet  high.  This  would  make  Prof.  Mitchell's  real  measurement 
6,677  feet>  nearly  what  he  obtained  (6,672  feet)  in  1844.  Prof. 
Guyot,  in  1856,  obtained  a  height  of  6,701  feet. 

Doubts  afterward  rose  in  Prof.  Mitchell's  mind  whether  the 
peak  he  climbed  in  1835  was  tne  true  summit  of  the  mountain. 
A  new  measurement  of  Mount  Washington  had  been  made, 
which  seemed  to  add  to  its  reported  height  and  lift  it  above 
Mitchell's  Peak.  Dr.  Mitchell  revisited  the  mountain  in  1838, 
and  determined  in  1844  to  make  a  new  survey  and  measure- 
ment. He  obtained  a  Gay  Lussac  mountain  barometer  from 
Paris,  took  William  Riddle  as  his  guide,  and,  making  Asheville 
his  base  for  comparison,  found  the  height  6,672  feet.  The 
identity  of  the  peak  visited  this  time  was  afterward  called  in 


286  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

question  by  other  parties,  but  Prof.  Mitchell  himself  never 
doubted  that  he  had  been  on  the  right  spot.  He  wrote  in  the 
summer  of  1856:  "I  stood  upon  the  highest  peak  some  days 
since,  and  could  then  distinguish  the  ridges  over  which  my 
guide,  William  Riddle,  taking  as  nearly  as  he  could  a  straight, 
or,  as  it  happened,  a  diagonal  direction  across  them  from  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  Green  Ponds,  led  me  directly  to  the  peak 
we  were  in  search  of." 

After  the  survey  of  1844,  the  Hon.  Thomas  L.  Clingman 
put  forth  a  claim  to  having  been  the  first  to  measure  the  real 
culminating  point  of  the  Black  Mountain,  and  undertook  to 
prove  that  Prof.  Mitchell  had  been  mistaken  in  the  mountain 
which  he  measured.  The  question  thus  raised  was  the  subject 
of  an  active  controversy  for  several  years.  The  highest  moun- 
tain was  called  Clingman's  Peak,  and  Prof.  Mitchell's  name  was 
transferred  to  the  peak  which  was  described  in  his  diary  of 
1835  as  "a  round  three-knobby  knob,  equal  to  the  highest," 
which  he  had  never  assumed  to  climb  or  to  measure.  It  was 
as  much  to  settle  this  dispute  as  for  the  sake  of  more  accurate 
measurement  that  Prof.  Mitchell  made  his  fifth  visit  to  the 
mountain  in  1857,  in  which  he  lost  his  life.  The  question  was 
investigated  by  his  friends  after  his  death,  when  all  the  accessi- 
ble evidence  was  collected  and  compared,  and  his  priority  in 
measuring  the  peak,  and  the  identity  of  the  mountain  he  meas- 
ured in  1835  witn  tne  real  highest  point,  seem  to  have  been 
satisfactorily  established.  In  evidence  to  support  his  claim, 
Prof.  Phillips  brought  forward  the  notes  in  his  diary  of  1835 
and  their  exact  correspondence  with  Prof.  Guyot's  profile ;  the 
testimony  of  William  Wilson,  one  of  the  guides  who  went  up 
with  him,  and  who  gave  in  his  certificate  a  correct  description 
of  the  topography  of  the  summit,  and  of  Nathaniel  Allen,  son 
of  Adoniram  Allen,  the  other  guide,  deceased,  who  said  that  his 
father  had  always  spoken  of  that  peak  as  the  one  which  he  as- 
cended with  Prof.  Mitchell ;  the  certificate  of  four  citizens  who 
accompanied  William  Wilson  in  September,  1857,  while  he  re- 
traced the  steps  of  the  ascent  of  1835  ;  the  testimony  of  nu- 
merous citizens  respecting  the  landmarks  and  the  geographical 
features,  particularly  of  the  streams,  by  which  the  true  highest 
peak  is  located  and  identified ;  and  the  testimony  of  the  same 
citizens  that  this  peak  was  generally  known  through  the  country 
as  Mount  Mitchell  or  Mitchell's  High  Peak,  while  the  other 


ELISHA   MITCHELL.  28/ 

mountain   (Party  Knob)   to  which   Prof.  Mitchell's  name  has 
been  attached  was  not  so  known  till  after  the  visit  of  1844. 

Prof.  Mitchell's  fifth  visit  to  the  Black  Mountain,  in  1857, 
was  made  in  view  of  the  controversy  with  Dr.  Clingman  for  the 
sake  of  obtaining  more  careful  and  accurate  measurements 
than  he  had  been  able  to  secure  before,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
investigating  the  value  of  the  number  which  is  used  in  calculat- 
ing heights  by  barometrical  observations.  To  this  end  he  had 
provided  himself  with  four  of  Green's  Smithsonian  barometers, 
and  sent  one  of  them  to  Savannah  to  be  employed  in  contem- 
poraneous observations  by  Dr.  Posey  at  the  level  of  the  ocean 
and  nearly  on  the  same  meridian  as  the  Black  Mountain.  He 
further  intended  to  connect  the  beach-mark  on  the  North 
Carolina  Western  Railroad  survey  by  a  line  determined  by  a 
spirit-level  with  the  top  of  Mitchell's  Peak.  After  marking  off 
points  differing  in  height  by  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  feet, 
he  designed  to  continue  contemporaneous  barometrical  and 
thermometrical  observations  for  several  days  at  each  of  these 
points,  and  thus  obtain  reliable  data  for  a  full  discussion  of 
questions  concerning  measurements  by  barometer  in  the  lati- 
tude of  the  region.  He  began  to  survey  about  the  middle  of 
June.  On  the  2yth  of  that  month,  when  his  work  was  about 
half  completed,  he  separated  from  his  son,  with  the  intention 
of  going  across  the  mountain  to  the  Caney  River  settlement  to 
visit  the  Wilsons  and  Mr.  Riddle,  his  former  guides,  and  secur- 
ing their  assistance  in  identifying  points  which  they  had  visited 
together.  He  was  never  seen  alive  afterward.  A  storm  arose 
that  evening,  in  which  he  probably  perished.  When  it  was 
found  that  he  had  neither  reached  Mr.  Wilson's  nor  returned  to 
his  lodgings,  parties  started  in  search  of  him.  As  the  search 
continued,  and  the  news  spread  that  he  was  missing,  the  parties 
grew,  and  soon  included  a  considerable  part  of  the  mountain 
population  of  Yancey  and  Buncombe  Counties  ;  for  the  people 
were  all  warmly  attached  to  him.  His  trail  was  found  and  fol- 
lowed to  a  point  where  the  guides  declared,  from  its  irregulari- 
ties and  the  evidences  that  the  wanderer  had  become  no  longer 
able  to  pick  his  course,  that  darkness  had  overtaken  him  ; 
thence  along  a  small  creek  to  a  place  now  called  Mitchell's 
Falls ;  and  there,  on  the  yth  of  July,  the  body  was  found  in  the 
pool  below  the  falls.  The  marks  on  the  bank  showed  that 
Prof.  Mitchell  had  slipped  forty-five  feet  down  the  slope  and 


288  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN    AMERICA. 

then  fallen  fifteen  feet  into  the  pool.  The  body  was  borne  by 
the  Yancey  men,  after  the  coroner's  inquest,  a  distance  of  about 
three  miles,  to  the  top  of  the  mountain.  Then  word  came  that 
it  was  to  be  taken  to  Asheville  ;  and  the  men  of  Buncombe  took 
it  up  and  carried  it  there. 

Not  quite  a  year  afterward,  in  June,  1858,  the  body  was  ex- 
humed from  the  graveyard  of  the  Presbyterian  church  in  Ashe- 
ville, and  was  carried  again,  this  time  with  formal  ceremonies, 
and  a  procession  of  citizens,  large  considering  the  character  of 
the  march,  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  where  it  was  laid  in  the 
earth,  within  a  few  feet  of  the  famous  balsam  tree.  A  funeral 
discourse  was  pronounced  by  Bishop  James  H.  Otey,  D.  D.,  of 
Tennessee,  one  of  Prof.  Mitchell's  first  pupils,  and  an  address 
in  vindication  of  Prof.  Mitchell's  claims  to  have  the  mountain 
named  after  him  was  delivered  by  President  Swain.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  the  first  class  taught  by  Prof.  Mitchell  in  the 
university  was  represented  at  the  ceremonies,  in  the  persons  of 
Bishop  Otey  and  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Wright,  of  Wilmington,  and 
the  last  class  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Graham  and  his  own  son.  A  monu- 
ment, twelve  feet  high,  in  the  material  known  as  white  bronze, 
was  erected  over  the  grave  in  1888. 

The  question  of  the  name  of  the  mountain  appears  to  have 
been  decided  by  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  in  1881- 
'82,  which,  adopting  the  final  designations  for  the  peaks  of  this 
range,  gave  Prof.  Mitchell's  name  to  this  one. 

Prof.  Mitchell  was  a  Presbyterian  minister  of  the  Presbytery 
of  Orange,  Synod  of  North  Carolina,  and  was  styled,  in  the 
memorial  resolutions  passed  by  the  synod,  probably  the  most 
learned  man  that  had  ever  lived  in  the  State ;  was  a  regular 
preacher  in  the  college  chapel  and  the  village  church ;  and  was 
the  college  bursar,  a  justice  of  the  peace,  a  farmer,  a  commis- 
sioner for  the  village  of  Chapel  Hill,  and  at  times  its  magis- 
trate of  police.  He  was  known  as  a  skilful  and  conscientious 
professor,  and  vigilant,  long-suffering,  firm,  and  mild  as  a  dis- 
ciplinarian. Believing  that  prevention  of  the  ills  of  a  college 
life  was  better  than  having  to  cure  them,  he  was  watchful  to 
guard  the  students  against  falling  into  error.  When  offences 
were  committed,  he  would  try  to  present  the  nature  of  his  con- 
duct to  the  culprit  in  its  true  light,  and,  when  punishment  had 
to  be  inflicted,  to  select  such  a  method  as  would  appeal  to  his 
better  feelings  and  open  the  way  to  a  return  to  sound  views. 


ELISHA   MITCHELL. 


289 


He  was  extensively  known  among  the  mountaineers,  who  all 
had  a  remarkably  warm  affection  for  him,  and  the  interest  that 
was  aroused  among  them  by  the  circumstances  of  his  disap- 
pearance was  still  "warmly  alive,"  and  the  event  was  still 
a  topic  of  conversation  as  late  as  the  end  of  1889. 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK. 

1793-1864. 

BORN  at  Deerfield,  Mass.,  May  23,  1793;  died  at  Amherst, 
Mass.,  February  27,  1864. 

The  first  of  this  family  emigrated  to  this  country  in  1635, 
coming  probably  from  Warwickshire  in  England.  He  was  one 
of  the  original  members  of  the  New  Haven,  Conn.,  Colony. 
Two  or  three  generations  of  the  family  resided  in  New  Haven  ; 
the  fourth  in  the  line  emigrated  to  western  Massachusetts,  and 
was  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  His  son,  Justin,  the 
father  of  Edward,  was  a  soldier  in  the  army  of  General  Gates 
when  Burgoyne's  army  was  captured.  Justin  married  one  of 
the  Hoyts,  who  was  descended  from  the  sufferers  at  Deerfield 
at  the  French-Indian  raid  of  1704.  He  settled  at  Deerfield, 
and  was  a  hatter.  Becoming  embarrassed  financially  by  obli- 
gations incurred  in  the  continental  currency,  he  suffered  from 
poverty  all  Jiis  life,  and  was  unable  to  give  his  children  more 
education  than  was  afforded  by  the  common  school  and  the 
local  academy.  Edward  was  therefore  compelled  to  educate 
himself,  and  that  under  the  drawback  of  ill  health,  caused  by 
overwork  and  carelessness.  Six  particulars  may  be  mentioned, 
going  to  show  that  by  improving  his  opportunities  he  was  well 
educated  in  many  respects:  i.  For  several  years  he  was  a 
leading  member  of  a  debating  society.  This  afforded  the  op- 
portunity to  practise  extempore  speaking,  composition,  and 
acquire  facility  in  philosophical  reasoning.  A  few  short  poems 
showed  that  he  essayed  the  higher  type  of  composition.  One 
of  these  was  a  tragedy  entitled  The  Downfall  of  Bonaparte, 
written  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  just  after  the  battle  of  Water- 
loo, and  acted  by  himself  and  friends  before  the  people  of  the 
village.  2.  For  four  years — from  twenty-two  to  twenty-six — 
he  was  the  principal  of  the  academy  in  his  native  town.  As 
there  were  always  in  this  school  a  number  who  were  fitting  for 


EDWARD    HITCHCOCK. 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK.  29! 

college,  he  found  it  necessary  to  review  all  his  classical  stud- 
ies— not  once  merely,  but  several  times.  The  same  was  true 
of  scientific  studies  also,  so  that  quite  a  large  number  of  sub- 
jects were  gone  over  very  thoroughly,  and  the  details  were 
fixed  in  his  memory.  It  was  a  better  discipline  than  if  he  had 
simply  taken  these  studies  as  a  college  student.  The  academy 
owned  a  very  good  philosophical  outfit  and  young  Hitch- 
cock prepared  a  number  of  lectures  on  physics,  which  were 
delivered  with  experiments  both  before  his  classes  and  in  the 
evening  to  people  of  the  village.  3.  Perhaps  the  best  mental 
discipline  came  from  the  use  of  the  astronomical  instruments 
belonging  to  the  academy.  He  observed  first  the  comet  of 
1811.  From  September  yth  to  December  lyth,  during  the  pres- 
ence of  the  celestial  visitor,  he  noted  the  distance  of  the 
comet  from  various  stars,  determined  the  latitude  and  longi- 
tude by  lunar  distances  and  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon,  oc- 
curring about  the  same  time,  and  the  variation  of  the  magnetic 
needle.  Several  months  of  study  were  required  to  reduce 
these  observations ;  and,  as  tables  were  wanting,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  calculate  elements  that  the  modern  astronomer  finds 
ready  to  his  hand.  The  results  of  this  work  were  published 
by  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in  a  paper  by 
General  Epaphras  Hoyt,  the  conclusions  of  the  uncle  and 
nephew  being  combined  in  a  longitude  determination.  4.  In 
these  calculations  use  was  made  of  the  Nautical  Almanac, 
then  published  by  Edmund  M.  Blunt,  of  New  York  (reprinted 
from  the  standard  English  publication).  Errors  would  hardly 
be  looked  for  in  such  a  work,  but  beneath  the  opening  page 
for  every  month  was  this  sentence:  "Ten  dollars  will  be 
paid  on  the  discovery  of  an  error  in  the  figures."  Young 
Hitchcock  soon  discovered  a  long  list  of  errors,  both  in 
the  figures  and  the  text,  and  sent  it  to  Mr.  Blunt,  who  an- 
swered evasively.  The  list  was  then  published  in  the  Ameri- 
can Monthly  Magazine,  which  called  out  Mr.  Blunt  in  a  state- 
ment commencing,  "  Noticing  an  attack  on  my  Nautical  Al- 
manac from  one  Edward  Hitchcock,  a  few  remarks  only  are 
necessary  to  explain  the  man's  drift."  He  represented  the 
errors  as  occurring  in  a  part  of  the  work  used  chiefly  by  as- 
tronomers, and  added,  "  I  would  rather  ten  errors  should  escape 
me  there  than  one  by  which  the  mariner  should  be  deceived." 
Before  this  answer  had  been  seen,  Hitchcock  had  forwarded  to 


2Q2  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  magazine  a  list  of  twenty  errors  in  the  tables  of  lunar 
distances,  which  were  serious,  because  of  their  magnitude  and 
their  use  by  sailors.  Six  months  later  another  list  of  thirty- 
five  errors  from  these  almanacs  for  1815,  1816,  1817,  and  1818 
made  its  appearance.  This  led  Mr.  Blunt  to  employ  a  mathe- 
matician to  recalculate  the  almanac  for  1819,  and  in  his  preface 
to  state  that  "  it  will  afford  much  satisfaction  and  promote 
commercial  advantages  if,  on  discovery  of  an  error  in  any 
nautical  work,  publicity  should  immediately  be  made."  A  copy 
was  sent  to  Hitchcock,  who  soon  made  out  a  list  of  thirty-five 
errors,  and  forwarded  them  to  the  magazine.  Mr.  Blunt  did 
not  send  the  pecuniary  reward  promised,  but  published  the 
statement  that  "  the  communication  of  Mr.  Hitchcock  deserves 
notice,  and  he  is  entitled  to  much  credit  for  his  perseverance." 
It  was  a  great  triumph  for  a  young  man  to  sustain  himself 
against  these  standard  astronomical  tables.  The  most  rigid 
accuracy  was  indispensable,  and  the  discipline  fully  equal  to 
that  acquired  by  years  of  scholastic  training.  5.  A  related 
discipline  came  from  the  publication  of  a  Country  Almanac 
from  1814  to  1818,  whose  calculations  were  original.  Here 
also  accuracy  was  essential  to  success.  No  complaint  was  ever 
made,  except  in  the  assignment  of  Easter  to  an  unusual  date. 
Both  clergymen  and  people  denounced  the  almanac  because  of 
this  supposed  misstatement.  Defence  was  made  that  the  ordi- 
nary rules  for  determining  this  festival  were  useless  for  that 
year,  as  it  was  a  peculiar  case,  occurring  only  once  in  several 
hundred  years.  Soon  afterward  the  bishop  of  the  diocese 
issued  a  circular  sustaining  the  almanac.  6.  Classical  training 
came  in  connection  with  teaching.  First  came  the  ordinary 
labour  of  making  translations  and  grammatical  construction. 
Then  he  kept  a  notebook  for  putting  down  the  most  striking 
sentiments  of  an  author,  such  as  would  answer  for  mottoes 
and  quotations.  To  obtain  the  choicest  sentiments  he  care- 
fully looked  up  all  the  references  made  from  rare  authors. 
Thus  he  became  familiar  with  the  best  thoughts  of  the  classical 
authors,  and  by  fixing  them  in  his  memory  obtained  a  fair  sub- 
stitute for  the  more  extended  college  training. 

During  his  connection  with  Deerfield  Academy,  Hitchcock 
became  interested  in  botany  and  mineralogy,  through  the  in- 
fluence of  Prof.  Amos  Eaton.  With  two  associates,  the  list  of 
plants  and  minerals  of  the  neighbourhood  was  soon  made  ex- 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK.  293 

haustive.  He  had  correspondence  with  the  elder  Prof.  Silli- 
man,  of  Yale  College,  respecting  difficult  questions,  and  the 
two  maintained  for  each  other  a  lifelong  friendship.  It  was 
probably  this  correspondence  which  led  Hitchcock  to  join  the 
newly  opened  theological  department  at  New  Haven.  He  fur- 
nished contributions  to  the  first  volume  cf  Silliman's  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science  and  Art,  and  to  many  later  issues.  In 
all,  his  name  is  prefixed  to  fifty-two  papers,  notices,  and  re- 
views on  topics  relating  to  geology,  mineralogy,  ichnology, 
surface  geology,  physics,  meteorology,  and  botany,  in  this 
journal. 

Hitchcock  chose  the  ministry  for  his  profession.  He  was 
settled  as  a  pastor  over  the  Congregational  Church  in  Con- 
way,  Mass.,  from  1821  to  1825.  While  in  this  office  he  studied 
natural  history  to  some  extent,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health. 
It  was  at  this  time  that  he  discovered  and  described  that  small 
but  widely  distributed  fern,  Botrychium  simplex.  In  1825  he 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Natural  History  in 
Amherst  College.  Twenty  years  afterward  he  became  presi- 
dent of  the  same  institution,  and  continued  in  the  office  for 
nearly  ten  years.  For  the  remainder  of  his  life — nearly  ten 
years — he  taught  geology  and  natural  theology  in  the  same 
institution. 

Like  scientific  men  of  his  time,  Dr.  Hitchcock  was  familiar 
with  several  departments  of  learning — being  an  author,  educa- 
tor, theologian,  and  explorer.  His  career  as  a  geologist  is  the 
best  known.  Starting  as  a  student  of  the  rocks  of  the  Con- 
necticut Valley,  his  home,  he  is  soon  found  at  both  extremities 
of  the  State — at  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Berkshire  County. 
With  larger  opportunities  for  travel,  he  was  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  interesting  legislatures  in  geological  surveys, 
and  he  took  measures  to  enlist  the  government  of  Massachu- 
setts in  such  work.  With  this  aim  in  mind  he  published  a 
lengthy  review  of  Olmsted's  survey  of  North  Carolina  in  the 
American  Journal  of  Science,  in  1828.  Near  the  close  he  says: 
"We  wish  now  to  ask  the  intelligent  legislator  whether  such  a 
development  of  internal  resources  as  this  report  exhibits  does 
not  amply  remunerate  the  State  of  North  Carolina  for  the 
comparatively  trifling  expense  of  this  survey ;  and  whether  so 
great  success  .  .  .  does  not  strongly  recommend  that  this  ex- 
ample be  followed  by  other  States  of  the  Union  ?" 


294 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 


As  a  result  of  this  and  other  efforts,  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts commissioned  him  to  make  a  geological  survey  of  her 
territory  in  1830.  Three  years  were  spent  in  the  explorations, 
and  the  work  was  of  such  a  high  character  that  other  States 
were  induced  to  follow  the  example  of  Massachusetts,  and 
similar  surveys  were  organized  in  Tennessee,  Maryland,  New 
Jersey,  New  York,  Virginia,  Maine,  Rhode  Island,  New  Hamp- 
shire, Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Delaware,  Michigan, 
Indiana,  Kentucky,  and  Georgia.  The  State  of  New  York 
sought  his  advice  in  the  organization  of  a  survey,  and  followed 
his  suggestions,  particularly  in  the  division  of  the  territory 
into  four  parts,  and  appointed  him  as  the  geologist  of  the  first 
district.  He  entered  upon  the  work,  but  after  a  few  days  of 
labour  he  found  that  he  must  necessarily  be  separated  from 
his  family,  much  to  his  disinclination.  He  also  conceived  the 
idea  of  urging  a  more  thorough  survey  of  his  own  State ;  hence 
he  resigned  his  commission  and  returned  home.  The  effort  for 
a  resurvey  of  Massachusetts  was  successful,  and  he  was  re- 
commissioned  to  do  the  work.  The  results  appeared  in  1841 
and  1844 — the  first  a  quarto  report  and  the  last  the  geolog- 
ical coloration  of  a  map  based  upon  Borden's  Trigonometrical 
Survey. 

Independently  of  the  survey  came  the  discovery  of  fossil 
footmarks.  As  far  back  as  1800  Pliny  Moody  had  observed 
trifid  markings  upon  sandstone  which  he  called  the  tracks  of 
birds.  In  1835  Mr.  W.  W.  Draper,  of  Greenfield,  Mass.,  no- 
ticed similar  impressions,  and  drew  the  same  conclusions.  Mr. 
Draper  remarked  upon  them  to  Dexter  Marsh  and  Colonel 
William  Wilson,  who  in  turn  consulted  Dr.  James  Deane,  who 
wrote  to  Professors  Silliman  and  Hitchcock.  All  agreed  to 
refer  the  investigation  to  Prof.  Hitchcock,  who  propounded 
the  fundamental  principles  of  ichnology  in  the  January  num- 
ber of  the  American  Journal  of  Sciences  for  1836.  The  an- 
nouncement was  not  favourably  received  by  many  geologists, 
while  the  general  public  gave  expression  to  their  views  by  the 
employment  of  ridicule.  The  subject  was  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee of  the  American  Association  of  Geologists,  consisting 
of  H.  D.  Rogers,  L.  Vanuxem,  R.  C.  Taylor,  E.  Emmons,  and 
T.  A.  Conrad,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  produce  a  unanimity  of 
opinion.  Those  who  had  most  earnestly  opposed  the  new  doc- 
trine were  upon  the  committee,  but  all  were  convinced;  as 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK. 


2Q5 


their  report,  issued  in  1841,  states,  "From  a  comparative  ex- 
amination of  the  facts  on  both  sides,  your  committee  unani- 
mously believe  that  the  evidence  entirely  favours  the  views  of 
Prof.  Hitchcock,  and  should  regret  that  a  difference  had  ex- 
isted, if  they  did  not  feel  assured  it  would  lead  to  greater  sta- 
bility of  opinion." 

The  publications  upon  the  subject  of  these  Triassic  foot- 
marks by  Prof.  Hitchcock  have  been  quite  numerous.  The 
most  important  were  that  in  the  final  report  upon  the 
geology  of  Massachusetts  in  1841,  a  paper  in  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  in 
1848,  in  the  Ichnology  of  New  England,  published  by  the 
State  of  Massachusetts  in  1859  and  its  supplement  in  1865. 
The  total  number  of  species  described,  as  finally  revised, 
amounted  to  one  hundred  and  fifty.  They  were  referred 
to  several  groups :  a  few  marsupialoids,  thick  and  narrow-toed 
birds,  ornithoid  lizards  or  batrachians,  lizards,  batrachians, 
chelonians,  fish,  Crustacea,  myriapods,  insects,  and  worms.  At 
first  the  trifid  impressions  were  referred  to  birds ;  and  it  was 
considered  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  this  view  that  in  1838 
or  1839  there  should  have  been  found  in  New  Zealand  the 
bones  of  true  birds  having  the  same  dimensions  as  the  largest 
Brontozoum.  Prof.  Owen  has  stated  that  his  belief  in  the 
ornithic  character  of  the  Deinornis  was  strongly  fortified  by 
the  fact  of  the  existence  of  the  Brontozoum.  Very  soon  after 
the  earliest  publications  about  these  ornithichnites  specimens 
were  exhumed  which  became  very  puzzling  because  of  the  pres- 
ence of  quadrupedal  characters.  It  became  very  clear  that 
there  must  be  an  intermediate  class  of  beings  between  birds 
and  reptiles,  and  accordingly  this  conclusion  was  embodied  in 
the  assignment  of  a  large  number  of  these  Ichnozoa  to  the  desig- 
nation of  "ornithoid  lizards  or  batrachians."  As  time  has 
progressed  the  order  of  Deinosaur  has  been  proposed,  to  in- 
clude such  animals  as  have  been  made  known  to  us  by  their 
bones;  and  now  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  of  the  impressions 
were  made  by  birds.  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh  has  obtained  entire 
skeletons  of  Deinosaurs  from  the  Connecticut  sandstones,  which 
he  calls  Anchisaurus.  They  seem  to  be  allied  to  the  Plesiornis 
rather  than  the  Anomcepus  or  Brontozoum  of  Hitchcock. 

The  specimens  from  which  the  opinions  and  descriptions  of 
the  ichnology  were  derived  are  preserved  in  the  Hitchcock 


296  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Ichnological  Cabinet  at  Amherst  College,  and  completely  fill  a 
room  one  hundred  by  forty  feet,  besides  two  smaller  apart- 
ments. The  number  of  distinct  impressions  studied  and 
labelled  exceeds  twenty  thousand.  It  is  likely  that  some  of 
the  suggestions  of  the  Ichnology  may  not  be  verified.  It  would 
be  strange  if  the  following  thirty  years  of  discovery  should 
not  enable  paleontologists  to  declare  positively  whether  the 
Batrachoides  impressions  are  really  the  mud  nests  of  tadpoles, 
or  whether  the  "  insects  "  are  properly  larval  or  adult  hexapods, 
or  simply  Crustacea,  as  urged  by  Dana  and  Agassiz. 

In  1857  Prof.  Hitchcock  accepted  the  appointment  of  State 
Geologist  of  Vermont.  Though  the  appropriation  was  very 
small  the  work  was  energetically  prosecuted,  and  conclusions 
presented  in  five  years'  time  in  two  quarto  volumes  of  nearly 
one  thousand  pages.  Not  many  speculations  were  indulged 
in,  though  opportunity  was  afforded  for  propounding  new  and 
startling  theories  of  the  metamorphosis  of  rocks.  The  report 
was  issued  just  at  the  time  when  Barrande  had  discharged  his 
artillery  at  the  opponents  of  the  Taconic  system,  and  compelled 
American  paleontologists  to  assign  the  Olenellus  to  the  primor- 
dial zone  instead  of  the  Hudson  River  slates.  The  report 
had  been  written  to  accord  with  the  American-  view,  but  the 
authors  were  enabled  to  omit  everything  that  did  not  illustrate 
the  reference  of  the  slates  to  the  Cambrian  terrane.  The  Ver- 
mont report  suggested  two  general  principles  which  have  been 
of  great  service  in  the  further  discussion  of  the  nature  of  meta- 
morphism  and  the  age  of  the  New  England  rocks.  The  first 
point  relates  to  the  distortion  and  alteration  of  pebbles  in  con- 
glomerates. As  far  back  as  1832  Prof.  Hitchcock  had  noticed 
the  singular  alterations  in  the  shapes  of  pebbles  constituting 
conglomerates  in  Rhode  Island.  Not  till  1861  was  he  able  to 
present  satisfactory  considerations  concerning  their  distortion 
and  alteration.  He  argued  that  pressure  and  metamorphism 
could  totally  obliterate  the  shapes  of  pebbly  constituents  and 
convert  them  into  crystalline  schists.  Very  few  of  his  contem- 
poraries followed  him  in  this  generalization.  The  large  geo- 
logical manuals  of  Dana  and  Le  Conte  conspicuously  avoided 
any  mention  of  this  view.  To-day  the  skilled  petrographers 
of  the  country  unanimously  indorse  the  doctrine  of  the  distor- 
tion and  alteration  of  the  fragmental  constituents  of  sediments. 

So  long  as  our  paleontologists  referred  the  Cambrian  fossils 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK. 


297 


to  the  Hudson  River  group,  their  associates,  as  represented  by 
Sir  William  E.  Logan,  insisted  that  the  quartzite  in  western 
Vermont  overlaid  the  slates,  and  was  of  Medina  age.  Logan 
also  claimed  a  synclinal  structure  for  the  Green  Mountains. 
Before  accepting  any  conclusion  as  to  their  structure,  Prof. 
Hitchcock  directed  that  this  mountain  range  should  be  carefully 
studied  stratigraphically.  A  dozen  sections  were  made  at  equal 
distances  apart  across  the  State,  and  it  was  discovered  that  the 
structure  was  anticlinal  when  not  monoclinal ;  and  hence  comes 
the  certainty  that  the  axis  of  the  Green  Mountain  chain  is  older 
than  lower  Cambrian.  The  latest  workers  in  this  field  accept 
this  conclusion. 

Perhaps  the  favourite  subject  of  Prof.  Hitchcock  was  the 
study  of  the  "  Drift."  He  began  to  study  the  icemarks,  even 
before  the  discovery  of  the  footprints,  and  soon  found  himself 
far  beyond  the  comprehension  of  his  literary  and  scientific 
associates.  Neither  the  iceberg  nor  glacier  theory  was  original 
with  him ;  but  no  one  up  to  the  time  of  his  death  had  pub- 
lished so  much  upon  the  subject.  His  views  are  developed  in 
the  treatise  on  Surface  Geology  published  by  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution  in  1857.  His  general  theory  refers  the  phe- 
nomena to  both  icebergs  and  glaciers ;  and  their  setting  forth 
was  generically  like  the  most  recent  deliverances  of  Sir  William 
Dawson,  who  acknowledges  the  presence  of  glaciers  upon  the 
mountains  from  which  the  icebergs  were  derived  that  flooded 
the  submerged  valleys.  His  papers  are  of  special  interest  con- 
cerning river  terraces,  local  glaciers  in  western  New  England, 
trains  of  boulders,  and  frozen  deposits  of  drift  gravel.  It  is 
an  interesting  fact  that  he  argued  against  the  admissibility  of 
Agassiz's  glacial  theory  because  of  the  absence  of  a  grand  ter- 
minal moraine  at  the  outer  margin  of  the  ice  sheet.  It  was 
less  than  five  years  after  his  death  that  geologists  began  to 
appreciate  the  true  significance  of  the  backbone  of  Long  Island 
— that  it  was  part  of  a  gigantic  moraine  more  than  a  thousand 
miles  long.  It  is  easy  to  see  where  Hitchcock  would  have 
stood  had  these  facts  been  known  in  his  day. 

The  first  written  suggestion  in  regard  to  the  formation  of 
the  American  Association  of  Geologists  came  from  Prof.  Hitch- 
cock, and  he  was  chosen  its  first  president  in  1840.  This  was 
the  parent  of  the  later  organization  known  as  the  American 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  He  was  present 
20 


298  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

at  nearly  every  meeting  of  both  organizations  until  the  gap  in 
the  later  history  induced  by  the  war. 

As  President  of  Amherst  College  he  was  called  upon  to  ex- 
ercise unwonted  judgment.  The  institution  had  almost  broken 
down  because  of  heavy  indebtedness.  The  historian  of  the  col- 
lege declares  that  it  was  saved  from  destruction  by  the  skill  and 
wisdom  of  President  Hitchcock.  As  an  instructor  and  guide 
no  one  was  more  loved  and  honoured.  The  number  of  stu- 
dents doubled  during  his  administration.  It  was  while  he  was 
president  that  his  Religion  of  Geology  appeared,  in  which  he 
expounded  the  applications  of  science  to  theology.  Most  of 
the  positions  there  maintained  are  accepted  by  the  advanced 
Christian  thinkers  of  to-day.  The  work  appeared  before  the 
advent  of  Darwinism,  but  its  principle  was  discussed  as  creation 
by  law.  While  not  accepting  any  development  hypothesis, 
Prof.  Hitchcock  took  pains  to  insist  that  its  adoption  would 
not  be  at  variance  with  any  fundamental  principle  of  theology. 
During  his  lifetime  the  doctrine  of  creation  was  the  prevalent 
fashion  of  thought,  just  as  now  everybody  is  an  evolutionist, 
and  as  in  the  Mesozoic  age  every  vertebrate  animal  assumed 
some  reptilian  feature. 

Prof.  Hitchcock  devoted  much  thought  to  the  relations  be- 
tween science  and  theology.  He  believed  that  his  suggestions 
— original  with  him — would  tend  to  bring  together  truths 
often  divorced,  but  which  only  man  puts  asunder.  The  follow- 
ing are  topics  upon  which  he  made  important  suggestions :  i. 
Proof  of  the  general  benevolence  of  God  from  geology.  2. 
Evidence  from  the  same,  of  special  divine  interpositions  in  Na- 
ture. 3.  Evidence  from  the  same,  of  special  providence.  4. 
Mode  of  answering  objections  to  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body  by  the  nature  of  bodily  identity.  5.  The  re- 
ligious bearing  of  man's  creation.  6.  The  adaptedness  of  the 
world  for  the  redemptive  work.  7.  The  Mosaic  days  properly 
interpreted  by  vmbolism.  These  and  related  views  were 
taught  by  him  to  his  classes  under  the  title  of  natural  theology. 
Through  his  efforts  the  chair  of  Geology  and  Natural  Theology 
was  endowed  in  Amherst  College,  with  the  understanding  that 
the  science  should  always  be  taught  from  a  religious  stand- 
point. 

A  list  of  Prof.  Hitchcock's  published  writings  shows  a  total 
of  twenty-six  distinct  volumes,  thirty-five  separate  pamphlets, 


EDWARD   HITCHCOCK.  299 

ninety-four  papers  in  periodicals,  and  eighty  newspaper  articles 
— a  total  of  8,453  pages,  with  256  plates  and  1,134  woodcuts. 
Half  of  these  were  scientific  papers  ;  of  the  others,  most  were 
religious  books,  essays,  sermons,  and  tracts.  He  published 
also  biographies,  reviews,  poetry,  and  temperance  documents. 

In  1821  Mr.  Hitchcock  married  Miss  Orra  White,  daughter 
of  Jarib  White,  of  Amherst,  Mass.,  and  they  lived  together  for 
forty-two  years.  Mrs.  Hitchcock  was  an  artist,  and  prepared 
many  of  the  illustrations  of  her  husband's  reports.  Six  of  their 
children,  two  sons  and  four  daughters,  reached  maturity.  The 
oldest  son  is  the  Professor  of  Hygiene  and  Physical  Education 
at  Amherst  College;  the  youngest  is  the  Professor  of  Geology 
at  Dartmouth  College.  Three  of  the  daughters  were  married 
—the  first  to  Rev.  Dr.  H.  M.  Storrs,  lately  of  Orange,  N.  J. ; 
the  second  to  G.  B.  Putnam,  of  the  Franklin  Grammar  School, 
Boston,  Mass. ;  the  third  to  the  late  Rev.  C.  M.  Terry,  of  Min- 
neapolis, Minn.  The  oldest  daughter  is  known  as  an  amateur 
botanist,  residing  at  Hanover,  N.  H. 


HENRY  ROWE  SCHOOLCRAFT. 

1793-1864. 

MR.  SCHOOLCRAFT  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  scien- 
tific life  of  the  early  part  of  the  century.  A  pioneer  in  some 
fields,  the  immediate  follower  of  the  pioneers  in  others,  he 
was,  in  all  the  branches  of  research  to  which  he  gave  atten- 
tion, earnest,  ready,  diligent,  sagacious,  original,  and  modest. 
As  among  his  titles  to  be  remembered,  the  biographer  who 
prefaces  his  Personal  Memoirs  names  the  early  period  at  which 
he  entered  the  field  of  observation  in  the  United  States  as  a 
naturalist ;  the  enterprise  he  manifested  in  exploring  the  geog- 
raphy and  geology  of  the  great  West ;  and  his  subsequent 
researches  as  an  ethnologist  in  investigating  the  Indian  lan- 
guages and  history.  "  To  him  we  are  indebted  for  our  first 
accounts  of  the  geological  constitution  and  the  mineral  wealth 
and  resources  of  the  great  valley  beyond  the  Alleghanies,  and 
he  is  the  discoverer  of  the  actual  source  of  the  Mississippi 
River  in  Itasca  Lake.  For  many  years,  beginning  with  1817, 
he  stirred  up  a  zeal  for  natural  history  from  one  end  of  the 
land  to  the  other,  and,  after  his  settlement  in  the  West,  he  was 
a  point  of  approach  for  correspondents  " — on  these  topics  and 
for  all  the  Indian  tribes. 

Henry  Rowe  Schoolcraft  was  born  in  Albany  County, 
N.  Y.,  March  28,  1793,  and  died  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  Decem- 
ber 10,  1864.  He  was  the  descendant,  in  the  third  generation, 
of  an  Englishman,  James  Calcraft,  who,  having  served  with 
credit  in  the  armies  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  came  to 
America  in  the  reign  of  George  II,  in  the  military  service,  and 
was  present  at  operations  connected  with  the  building  of  Forts 
Anne,  Edward,  and  William  Henry.  After  these  campaigns 
he  settled  in  Albany  County  as  a  land-surveyor,  married,  and 
in  his  old  age,  conducted  a  large  school — the  first  English 
school  that  was  taught  in  that  frontier  region.  In  connec- 

300 


HENRY  HOWE    SCHOOLCRAFT. 


HENRY   R.  SCHOOLCRAFT.  301 

tion  with  this  incident  his  name  became  changed  to  School- 
craft.  He  died  at  the  age  of  one  hundred  and  two  years. 
John,  his  third  son,  was  a  soldier  under  Sir  William  Johnson. 
Lawrence,  John's  son,  distinguished  himself  during  the  siege 
of  Fort  Stanwix.  He  was  afterward  director  of  the  glass- 
works of  the  Hon.  Jeremiah  Van  Rensselaer,  at  Hamilton, 
near  Albany ;  and  established  the  manufacture  of  glass  in 
Western  New  York. 

Henry  Schoolcraft  spent  his  childhood  and  youth  in  Ham- 
ilton, cultivated  poetry,  and  maintained  an  excellent  standing 
in  scholarship.  At  an  early  age  he  manifested  a  taste  for 
natural  science,  which  was  then  (about  1808)  little  known 
outside  our  seats  of  learning;  formed  the  beginnings  of  col- 
lections ;  and  organized  an  association  for  mental  improve- 
ment. He  investigated  the  drift  stratum  of  Albany  County  as 
seen  in  the  bed  of  Norman's  Kill ;  and  afterward,  while  living 
at  Lake  Dunmore,  Vt.,  put  himself  under  the  teaching  of  Prof. 
Hall,  of  Middlebury  College ;  added  chemistry,  natural  phi- 
losophy, and  medicine  to  his  studies ;  erected  a  chemical 
furnace,  and  went  into  experimenting ;  and  picked  up  a 
knowledge  of  Hebrew,  German,  and  French.  He  began  writ- 
ing for  books  and  periodicals  in  1808 — contributing,  among 
other  things,  papers  on  the  Burning  Springs  of  Western  New 
York,  and  on  archaeological  discoveries  that  had  been  made  in 
Hamburg,  Erie  County.  In  the  last  paper,  which  was  pub- 
lished at  Utica  in  1817,  he  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  dis- 
criminating between  the  period  of  early  European  occupancy, 
and  that  of  aboriginal  American  antiquity.  He  was  en- 
gaged for  a  time  in  directing  the  building  of  works  con- 
nected with  his  father's  glass-making  enterprises  in  Vermont, 
New  Hampshire,  and  western  'New  York.  The  ideas  and 
knowledge  gained  in  these  operations  supplied  the  ma- 
terial for  his  proposed  work  on  Vitreology,  or  the  applica- 
tion of  chemistry  to  glass-making,  the  publication  of  which 
was  begun  in  1817.  The  supervision  of  these  works  re- 
quired the  making  of  considerable  journeys,  and  these 
created  in  him  the  desire  to  travel  through  the  wilds  of 
the  "  Far  West,"  which  then  hardly  extended  beyond  the 
Missouri  River. 

He  made  some  "  preliminary  explorations "  to  his  con- 
templated journey,  in  Western  New  York  in  1816  and  1817,  and 


302 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


started  from  Olean  on  the  Alleghany  River  for  a  journey 
down  the  Ohio  and  up  the  Mississippi  in  1818.  A  large  com- 
pany of  intending  emigrants  had  gathered  there  waiting  for 
the  season  to  open,  and  Schoolcraft  took  passage  in  the  first 
ark.  Arrived  at  Pittsburg,  he  stopped  to  explore  the  geology 
of  the  Monongahela  Valley,  and  was  greatly  interested  in  the 
rich  coal  and  iron  beds.  He  stopped  to  visit  the  Grave  Creek 
mound  and  the  ancient  works  at  Marietta.  At  Louisville  he 
found  "  organic  remains  "  of  several  species  in  the  limestone 
rocks  of  the  falls,  and  published  anonymously  in  the  paper 
some  notices  of  its  mineralogy.  At  the  mouth  of  the  Cumber- 
land River  he  exchanged  the  ark  for  a  keel-boat  or  barge, 
with  which,  propelled  by  poles  pushing  on  the  bottom,  he 
made  from  three  to  ten  miles  a  day  against  the  swift  current 
of  the  Mississippi  to  Herculaneum,  Mo.  On  this  voyage  he 
travelled  over  a  large  part  of  the  west  bank  on  foot,  and 
gleaned  several  facts  in  its  mineralogy  and  geology  which 
made  it  an  initial  point  in  his  future  observations.  He  spent 
three  months  in  examining  the  lead  mines,  personally  visiting 
every  mine  or  digging  of  consequence  in  the  Missouri  country 
and  tracing  its  geological  relations  into  Arkansas.  Hearing 
of  syenite  suitable  for  millstones  on  the  St.  Francis,  he  visited 
that  stream  and  discovered  the  primitive  tract ;  and  he  pushed 
his  examinations  west  beyond  the  line  of  settlement  into  the 
Ozark  Mountains.  He  now  determined  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  Government  to  the  importance  of  its  taking  care  of  its 
domain  in  the  mines,  and  with  this  purpose  packed  his  collec- 
tions and  took  passage  in  the  new  steamer  St.  Louis  for  New 
Orleans.  Hence,  having  inquired  into  the1  formation  of  the 
delta  of  the  Mississippi,  he  sailed  by  brig  for  New  York.  He 
opened  his  collections  and  invited  examination  of  them,  pub- 
lished a  book  on  the  mines  and  physical  geography  of  the 
West  and  a  letter  on  its  resources,  and  went  to  Washington 
to  present  his  views  on  the  care  of  the  mines  to  the  officers  of 
the  Government.  While  he  was  looking  for  a  secretary  within 
whose  purview  the  matter  fell,  Mr.  Calhoun  invited  him  to 
accompany  General  Cass,  Governor  of  Michigan,  as  naturalist 
and  mineralogist  on  an  expedition  to  explore  the  sources  of 
the  Mississippi  and  to  inquire  into  the  supposed  value  of  the 
Lake  Superior  copper  mines.  He  accepted  the  position, 
though  the  compensation  was  small,  because,  he  says,  "  it 


HENRY   R.  SCHOOLCRAFT. 


303 


seemed  to  be  the  bottom  step  of  a  ladder  which  I  ought  to 
climb." 

Mr.  Schoolcraft  left  New  York  in  March,  1820,  reached 
Niagara  Falls  on  the  ist  of  May,  and  Detroit  by  steamer  a 
week  later.  While  waiting  for  the  completion  of  arrangements 
for  embarkation,  he  attended  to  the  correspondence  which  had 
been  provoked  by  the  publication  of  his  work  on  the  mines 
and  the  resultant  awakening  of  interest  in  the  varied  resources 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  subject  of  geographical  and 
geological  explorations.  He  determined  to  reply  to  all  letters 
that  appeared  to  be  honest  inquiries  for  geographical  facts, 
"  which  I  only,  and  not  books,  could  communicate."  The 
route  of  the  expedition  "  lay  up  the  Detroit  and  St.  Clair 
Rivers  and  around  the  southern  shores  of  Lakes  Huron  and 
Superior  to  Fond  du  Lac,  thence  up  the  St.  Louis  River  in  its 
rugged  passage  through  the  Cabotian  Mountains  to  the  Savan- 
nah summit  which  divides  the  Great  Lakes  from  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley.  The  latter  was  entered  through  the  Cantaguma 
or  Sandy  Lake  River.  From  this  point  the  source  of  the 
Mississippi  was  sought  up  rapids  and  falls  and  through  lakes 
and  savannahs,  in  which  the  channel  winds.  We  passed  the 
inlet  of  Leech  Lake,  which  was  fixed  upon  by  Lieutenant  Pike 
as  its  probable  source,  and  traced  it  through  Little  Lake  Win- 
nipeg to  the  inlet  of  Turtle  Lake  in  upper  Red  Cedar  or  Cass 
Lake  in  latitude  47°.  On  reaching  this  point  the  waters  were 
found  unfavourable  to  proceeding  higher.  The  river  was  then 
descended  to  the  falls  of  St.  Anthony,  St.  Peter's,  and  Prairie 
du  Chien.  From  the  latter  point  we  ascended  the  Wisconsin 
to  the  portage  into  Fox  River,  and  descended  the  latter  to 
Green  Bay."  At  this  point  the  expedition  was  divided.  The 
party  to  which  Mr.  Schoolcraft  was  attached  proceeded  to 
Chicago,  thence  traced  the  eastern  coast  of  Michigan,  and 
rejoined  the  other  party,  which  had  gone  north  to  trace  the 
shores  to  Michilimackinack.  About  four  thousand  miles  were 
traversed.  Reports  were  made  to  the  Government  by  Mr- 
Schoolcraft  on  the  mineralogy  and  geology  of  the  region  ;  on 
the  copper  deposits  of  Lake  Superior ;  on  the  botany,  fresh- 
water .conchology,  zoology,  and  ichthyology;  soil,  productions, 
and  climate  received  attention  ;  and  the  Indian  tribes  were 
subjects  of  observation  by  General  Cass.  "  In  short,  no  ex- 
ploration had  before  been  made  which  so  completely  revealed' 


304  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

the  features  and  physical  geography  of  so  large  a  portion  of 
the  public  domain."  A  new  interest  in  mineralogy  and  geol- 
ogy was  awakened  by  this  expedition,  and  Mr.  Schoolcraft's 
narrative  of  it  was  hurried  into  press  under  the  pressure  of 
the  public  clamour  for  its  results.  The  book  was  published  in 
May,  1821. 

Mr.  Schoolcraft  shortly  afterward  embarked,  with  General 
Cass,  on  another  expedition.  The  route  lay  from  the  present 
site  of  Toledo,  up  the  Maumee,  down  the  Wabash  and  Ohio 
to  Shawneetown,  overland  across  the  "  knobs  "  and  prairies, 
taking  a  famous  locality  of  fluor-spar  on  the  way,  to  St.  Louis; 
thence  up  the  Illinois  to  the  rapids  and  on  horseback  to  Chi- 
cago, stopping  to  find  the  fossil  tree  in  the  bed  of  the  Des 
Plaines.  In  Chicago,  a  treaty  was  made  with  the  Pottawat- 
tamies  for  the  surrender  of  about  five  million  acres  of  land, 
to  which  Mr.  Schoolcraft  should  have  given  his  signature 
among  the  others,  but  he  was  too  ill — "  did  not,  indeed,  ever 
expect  to  make  another  entry  in  a  human  journal."  The  in- 
cidents and  observations  of  the  journey  have  been  published 
as  Travels  in  the  Central  Portions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
In  the  next  year  (1822)  Mr.  Schoolcraft  was  appointed  Indian 
agent  at  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  of  which  he  says,  giving  his  reasons 
for  accepting  it :  "I  had  now  attained  a  fixed  position  ;  not 
such  as  I  desired  in  the  outset  and  had  striven  for,  but  one 
that  offered  an  interesting  class  of  duties,  in  the  performance 
of  which  there  was  a  wide  field  for  honourable  exertion,  and, 
if  it  was  embraced,  also  of  historical  inquiry  and  research. 
The  taste  for  natural  history  might  certainly  be  transferred 
to  that  point,  where  the  opportunity  for  discovery  was  the 
greatest."  The  position  afforded  him  excellent  opportunities 
for  studying  the  Chippewa  language  and  Indian  mythology 
and  superstition,  characteristics  and  customs,  of  which  he 
made  the  best  use.  He  determined  to  be  a  labourer  in  the 
new  field  of  Indian  studies.  His  diary  during  the  whole  term 
-  of  his  office  shows  him  leading  a  busy  and  varied  life.  We 
find  in  it  notes  on  his  subjects  of  study,  of  his  readings  on 
various  general  topics,  observations  on  the  natural  features 
of  the  region,  remarks  on  mineralogical  specimens  and  in- 
cidents of  official  work. 

Mr.  Schoolcraft  spent  the  winter  of  i824-*25,  on  leave  of 
absence,  in  New  York,  where  he  superintended  the  printing  of 


HENRY   R.  SCHOOLCRAFT.  305 

his  Travels  in  the  Central  Portions  of  the  Mississippi  Valley. 
"  Society "  was  much  interested  in  Mrs.  Schoolcraft,  the 
"  Northern  Pocahontas,"  a  lady  of  aristocratic  Irish  descent 
on  one  side,  and  tracing  her  ancestors  on  the  other  side  to  the 
royal  house  of  the  Chippewas,  who  was  withal,  having  been 
educated  abroad,  highly  accomplished  and  refined  in  her  man- 
ners. She  was  the  daughter  of  Mr.  John  Johnston,  of  Sault 
Ste.  Marie,  who  had  married  the  daughter  of  Wabojeeg,  a 
distinguished  Chippewa  chieftain.  In  1825  Mr.  Schoolcraft 
attended  a  convocation  of  the  Indian  tribes  at  Prairie  du 
Chien,  where  a  treaty  was  signed,  through  which  it  was  hoped 
internal  disputes  between  the  tribes  might  be  settled  by  fixing 
the  boundaries  to  their  respective  territories.  In  the  next  year 
he  attended  a  similar  gathering  of  the  Chippewa  tribes  at  Fond 
du  Lac,  where  the  principles  of  the  treaty  of  Prairie  du  Chien 
were  reaffirmed,  and  a  new  treaty  was  made,  under  which  the 
Indians  acknowledged  the  sovereign  authority  of  the  United 
States ;  ceded  the  right  to  explore  and  take  away  the  native 
copper  and  copper  ores,  and  to  work  the  mines  and  minerals 
in  the  country  ;  and  provision  was  made  for  the  education  of 
the  Indians  and  their  advancement  in  the  arts.  The  system 
of  Indian  boundaries  established  by  these  treaties  was  com- 
pleted by  the  treaty  of  Butte  des  Morts,  August,  1827.  The 
three  treaties  embodied  a  new  course  and  policy  for  keeping 
the  tribes  in  peace,  and  were  founded  "  on  the  most  enlarged 
consideration  of  the  aboriginal  right  of  fee  simple  to  the 
soil."  In  1827  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Legislative 
Council  of  the  newly  organized  Territory  of  Michigan — an 
office  which  was  not  solicited,  and  was  not  declined.  As  a 
member  of  this  body  during  four  sessions,  he  directed  his  at- 
tention to  the  incorporation  of  a  historical  society ;  to  the 
preparation  of  a  system  of  township  names  derived  from  the 
aboriginal  languages ;  and  to  some  efforts  for  bettering  the 
condition  of  the  natives. 

A  proposition  was  made  to  Mr.  Schoolcraft  in  1828  to  go 
as  one  of  the  scientific  corps  of  an  exploring  expedition  which 
the  Government  contemplated  sending  to  the  south  seas, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  In  his 
reflections  on  the  prospects  of  this  expedition  and  the  acqui- 
sitions to  knowledge  that  might  be  expected  to  accrue  from  it, 
he  regarded  the  experiments  of  Dr.  Maskelyn,  denoting  a 


306  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

greater  specific  gravity  in  the  central  portion  of  the  globe 
than  in  its  crust,  as  opposed  to  a  theory  that  was  then  advo- 
cated of  an  interior  void.  Yet  he  thought  "  we  are  advertised, 
by  the  phenomena  of  earthquakes,  that  this  interior  abounds 
with  oxygen,  hydrogen  gas,  caloric,  and  sulphur,  and  that  ex- 
traordinary geological  changes  are  affected  by  their  action. 
It  does  seem  improbable  that  the  proposed  expedition  will 
trace  any  open  connection  with  such  an  interior  world  ;  but 
it  may  accumulate  facts  of  the  highest  importance."  There 
was  something,  however,  about  the  getting  up  and  organiza- 
tion of  the  expedition  which  he  did  not  like,  and  an  appre- 
hension whether  Congress  would  not  cripple  it  by  voting 
meagre  supplies  and  outfits.  He  declined  to  go. 

A  note  from  Mr.  G.  W.  Featherstonaugh,  giving  a  disparag- 
ing view  of  American  scientific  achievement,  and  inclosing  the 
prospectus  of  a  journal  designed  to  correct  these  things,  gave 
Mr.  Schoolcraft  opportunity  for  bearing  strong  tribute  to  the 
genuineness  of  real  American  scientific  research.  The  critic's 
remarks  might  be  true  as  to  a  certain  class,  who  had  not  made 
science  a  study  ;  but,  if  applied  to  the  power  and  determin- 
ation of  the  American  mind  devoted  to  natural  history,  it  was 
"not  only  unjust  in  a  high  degree,  but  an  evidence  of  an  over- 
weening self-complaisance,  imprecision  of  thought,  or  arro- 
gance. No  trait  of  the  American  scientific  character  has 
been  more  uniformly  and  highly  approbated  by  the  foreign 
journals  of  England,  France,  and  Germany  than  its  capacity 
to  accumulate,  discriminate,  and  describe  facts.  For  fourteen 
years  past,  Silliman's  Journal  of  Science,  though  not  exclu- 
sively devoted  to  natural  sciences,  has  kept  both  the  scientific 
and  the  popular  intelligent  mind  of  the  public  well  and 
accurately  advised  of  the  state  of  natural  science  the  world 
over.  Before  it,  Bruce's  Mineralogical  Journal,  though  con- 
tinued but  for  a  few  years,  was  eminently  scientific ;  and 
Cleaveland's  Mineralogy  has  had  the  effect  to  diffuse  scientific 
knowledge  not  only  among  men  of  science,  but  other  classes 
of  readers.  In  ornithology,  in  conchology,  and  especially  in 
botany,  geology,  and  mineralogy,  American  mind  has  proved 
itself  eminently  fitted  for  the  highest  tasks." 

The  Michigan  Historical  Society  was  founded,  chiefly 
through  Mr.  Schoolcraft's  instrumentality,  in  1828,  and  the 
Algic  Society  on  February  28,  1832.  The  latter  organization 


HENRY  R.  SCHOOLCRAFT.  307 

had  in  view  the  reclamation  of  the  Indians,  and,  connected 
with  this,  the  collection  and  dissemination  of  information  re- 
specting their  language,  history,  traditions,  customs,  and  char- 
acter ;  their  numbers  and  conditions  ;  the  geological  features 
of  their  country,  and  its  natural  history  and  productions.  It 
also  proposed  some  definite  means  of  action  for  furthering 
the  moral  instruction  of  the  Indians,  and  for  helping  the  mis- 
sionaries in  all  work  for  their  benefit.  As  president  of  this 
society,  Mr.  Schoolcraft  was  asked  to  lecture  on  the  gram- 
matical construction  of  the  Algonquin  languages  as  spoken  by 
the  Northwestern  tribes,  and  to  procure  a  lexicon  of  it ;  also 
to  deliver  a  poem  on  the  Indian  character  at  the  annual  meet- 
ing of  1833.  Other  literary  efforts  of  this  period  were,  an 
address  before  the  Historical  Society  of  Michigan  in  1830, 
and  an  address,  in  1831,  before  the  Detroit  Lyceum,  on  the 
natural  history  of  the  Territory.  In  the  summer  of  1832 
Mr.  Schoolcraft,  under  a  commission  from  the  Government, 
organized  and  commanded  an  expedition  to  the  country  about 
the  sources  of  the  Mississippi  River.  The  primary  object  of 
the  expedition  was  to  extend  to  the  Indians  living  north  of 
St.  Anthony's  Falls  the  measures  previously  taken  with  those 
south  of  that  point,  to  effect  a  pacification ;  also,  to  endeavour 
to  ascertain  the  actual  source  of  the  river.  He  ascended  the 
St.  Louis  from  Lake  Superior  to  Sandy  Lake  summit,  and 
passed  thence  direct  to  the  Mississippi  six  degrees  below  the 
central  island  in  Cass  Lake,  which  was  till  then  the  ultimate 
point  of  geographical  discovery.  Thence  he  went  up  the 
river  and  its  lakes,  avoiding  too  long  circuits  of  the  stream 
by  portages,  to  the  junction  of  the  two  branches,  where  by  the 
advice  of  his  Indian  guide  he  took  the  left-hand,  or  Plantage- 
nian  branch,  to  Lake  Assawa,  its  source.  Thence  he  went  by 
portage,  a  distance  of  "  twelve  resting-places,"  to  Itasca  Lake, 
which  he  struck  within  a  mile  of  its  southern  extremity.  The 
lake  was  judged  to  be  about  seven  miles  in  length,  by  one  or 
two  broad ;  "  a  bay,  near  its  eastern  end,  gave  it  somewhat  the 
shape  of  the  letter  y"  The  discoverer  returned,  through  the 
stream  and  its  lakes,  to  St.  Peter's. 

The  narrative  of  this  expedition  was  published  in  1834; 
and  was  republished,  with  the  account  of  the  expedition  of 
1820,  in  1853,  under  the  title,  Narrative  of  an  Exploratory 
Expedition  to  the  Sources  of  the  Mississippi  River  in  1820, 


308  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

completed  by  the  Discovery  of  its  Origin  in  Itasca  Lake  in 
1832.  The  whole  of  Mr.  Schoolcraft's  earlier  life  and  work 
up  to  this  time  is  recorded,  mostly  from  day  to  day,  in  his 
Personal  Memoirs  of  a  Residence  of  Thirty  Years  with  the 
Indian  Tribes  on  the  American  Frontiers,  etc.,  1812  to  1842,  a 
book  having  "  the  flavour  of  the  time,  with  its  motley  incident 
on  the  frontier,  with  Indian  chiefs,  trappers,  government 
employees,  chance  travelers,  rising  legislators,  farmers,  min- 
isters of  the  gospel,  all  standing  out  with  more  or  less  of  indi- 
viduality in  the  formative  period  of  the  country."  This  book 
abounds  with  evidence  of  Mr.  Schoolcraft's  scientific  and  liter- 
ary activity,  as  well  as  of  his  efficiency  in  work  in  whatever 
field.  As  early  as  1820  we  find  a  letter  from  Amos  Eaton, 
asking  him  for  information  for  the  second  edition  of  his  In- 
dex to  Geology,  respecting  the  secondary  and  alluvial  forma- 
I  tions  and  the  strata  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Dr.  Samuel 
Mitchell  writes  him,  in  1821,  about  the  shells  and  other  speci- 
mens he  has  sent,  including  a  "  sandy  fungus,"  and  inviting 
specimens  for  the  cabinet  of  the  Emperor  of  Austria.  Profs. 
Silliman  and  Hall  acknowledge  the  value  of  his  examination 
of  the  mining  regions  of  Missouri ;  Prof.  Silliman  asks  for 
articles  for  his  journal ;  and  Sir  Humphry  Davy  thinks  his 
book  would  sell  well  in  England.  Prof.  Cleaveland  writes 
him,  in  1827,  that  he  is  about  preparing  a  new  edition  of 
his  work  on  mineralogy,  and  solicits  the  communication  of 
new  localities.  In  the  same  year  Mr.  Schoolcraft  himself 
writes  that  the  collection  he  made  in  Missouri,  etc.,  in  1819, 
appears  to  have  had  an  effect  on  the  prevalent  taste  for 
those  subjects,  "  and  at  least  it  has  fixed  the  eyes  of  natural- 
ists on  my  position  on  the  frontiers."  Mr.  Peter  S.  Dupon- 
ceau  addresses  him,  in  1834,  on  the  structure  of  the  Indian 
languages,  "  in  terms  which  are  very  complimentary,  coming, 
as  they  do,  as  a  voluntary  tribute  from  a  person  whom  I  never 
saw,  and  who  has  taken  the  lead  in  investigations  on  this  ab- 
struse topic  in  America."  He  pronounces  Mr.  Schoolcraft's 
book  on  the  Chippewa  languages  one  of  the  most  philosoph- 
ical works  on  the  Indian  languages  which  he  has  ever  read. 
In  another  letter  Mr.  Duponceau  acknowledges  having  used 
Mr.  Schoolcraft's  grammar,  giving  due  credit,  in  preparing  a 
prize  essay  for  the  Institute  of  France,  on  the  grammatical 
structure  of  Indian  languages.  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Webb,  of 


HENRY   R.  SCHOOLCRAFT. 


309 


Providence,  in  1835,  notifies  him  of  his  election  as  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  and  asks 
about  aboriginal  inscriptions  on  rocks.  The  Massachusetts 
Historical  Society,  in  1836,  asks  him  to  proceed  with  his 
work  on  the  Ojibway  language,  complete  it,  and  let  the  society 
publish  it.  John  J.  Audubon  asks  for  aid  in  preparing  his 
work  on  American  quadrupeds.  There  are  numerous  notices 
of  specimens  that  have  been  sent  to  Mr.  Schoolcraft  to  pass 
upon,  and  solicitations  from  persons  representing  the  prin- 
cipal  magazines,  to  contribute  of  the  results  of  his  researches. 

A  new  disposition  of  official  posts  having  been  made,  Mr. 
Schoolcraft  transferred  his  residence  in  1837  to  Michilimack- 
inac  or  Mackinaw.  Thence  he  removed,  in  1841,  to  New 
York,  where  he  expected  to  find  the  surroundings  more  fa- 
vourable to  the  collation  and  publication  of  the  results  of  his 
observations  on  the  red  race,  whom  he  "  had  found  in  many 
traits  a  subject  of  deep  interest ;  in  some  things  wholly  mis- 
understood and  misrepresented  ;  and  altogether  an  object  of 
the  highest  humanitarian  interest."  But  the  publishers  were 
not  yet  prepared  in  their  views  to  undertake  anything  corre- 
sponding to  his  ideas.  In  the  next  year  he  carried  out  a  long- 
deferred  purpose  of  visiting  England  and  continental  Europe, 
attending  the  British  Association  at  Manchester.  On  his  re- 
turn he  made  a  tour  through  western  Virginia,  Ohio,  and 
Canada.  In  1845  he  was  appointed  by  the  Legislature  of  New 
York  as  a  commissioner  to  take  the  census  of  the  Indians  of 
the  State,  and  collect  information  concerning  the  Six  Nations. 
The  results  of  this  investigation  were  embodied  in  his  Notes 
on  the  Iroquois,  a  second  enlarged  edition  of  which  was  pub- 
lished in  1847.  The  latter  part  of  his  life  was  spent  in  the 
preparation — under  an  act  passed  by  Congress  in  1847 — of  an 
elaborate  work  on  all  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  country,  based 
upon  information  obtained  through  the  reports  of  the  Indian 
Bureau.  This  work — which  was  published  in  six  quarto  vol- 
umes— is  described  in  Duyckink's  Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Literature  as  covering  a  wide  range  of  subjects  in  the  general 
history  of  the  race ;  their  traditions  and  associations  with  the 
whites ;  their  special  antiquities  in  the  several  departments  of 
archaeology  in  relation  to  the  arts  ;  their  government,  man- 
ners, and  customs ;  their  physiological  and  ethnological  pecul- 
iarities as  individuals  and  nations ;  their  intellectual  and  moral 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

cultivation ;  their  statistics  of  population ;  and  their  geo- 
graphical position,  past  and  present. 

His  Indian  wife  having  died  in  1852,  Mr.  Schoolcraft  mar- 
ried, in  1857,  Miss  Mary  Howard,  of  Beaufort,  S.  C.  Being 
highly  educated  she  was  able  to  render  him  great  assistance  in 
the  preparation  of  his  last  work  when  he  was  helpless  from  pa- 
ralysis. 

Mr.  Schoolcraft  became  interested  in  religion  at  an  early 
period  in  his  career,  and  his  journals  show  him  ever  more  earn- 
estly co-operating  in  local  religious  movements;  furthering  the 
progress  of  missionary  effort  among  the  Indians,  by  whatever 
denomination ;  labouring  for  the  promotion  of  temperance 
among  them;  and  taking  the  lead  in  whatever  might  contribute 
to  their  well-being  or  to  the  repression  of  wrong  against  them. 
His  literary  activity  was  prolific,  and  appears  to  have  been 
nearly  evenly  divided  between  poetry,  Indian  lore  and  ethnol- 
ogy, and  the  objects  of  his  explorations  and  scientific  investiga- 
tion. Besides  books  of  poems  and  the  narratives  already 
named,  he  published  Algic  Researches,  a  collection  of  Indian 
allegories  and  legends  (1839) ;  Oneota,  or  the  Characteristics  of 
the  Red  Race  in  America  (i844-'45),  republished  in  1848  as 
The  Indian  and  his  Wigwam;  Report  on  Aboriginal  Names  and 
the  Geographical  Terminology  of  New  York  (1845);  Plan  for 
investigating  American  Ethnology  (1846);  The  Red  Race  of 
America  (1847)  5  A-  Bibliography  of  the  Indian  Tongues  of  the 
United  States  (1849)  ;  and  American  Indians,  their  History. 
Condition,  and  Prospects  (1850).  He  received  the  degree  of 
LL.  D.  from  the  University  of  Geneva  in  1846;  and  was  a 
member  of  many  learned  societies. 


SAMUEL    LUTHER   DANA. 


SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA. 

1795-1868. 

SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA,  the  second  son  of  Lucy  (Giddings) 
and  Captain  Luther  Dana,  was  born  July  n,  1795,  in  the  town 
of  Amherst,  not  far  from  Nashua,  N.  H.  He  was  descended 
from  Richard  Dana  who  came  to  this  country  and  settled  in 
Cambridge  about  1640.  His  father  was  a  native  of  Groton, 
Mass.,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Revolutionary  War  en- 
tered the  navy  of  the  United  States  as  a  midshipman,  he  being 
then  seventeen  years  of  age.  Soon  after  his  marriage  in  1788, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Amherst,  and  engaged  in  mercan- 
tile business.  This  not  proving  successful  he  took  to  the  sea 
again,  becoming  a  shipmaster  in  the  merchant  service.  He 
followed  the  sea  until  a  few  years  before  his  death,  in  1832, 
and  made  about  seventy  voyages  to  ports  in  Europe,  Asia,  and 
America.  Captain  Dana  was  fond  of  knowledge  and  took 
pleasure  in  collecting  objects  of  natural  history,  many  valu- 
able specimens  being  given  by  him  to  the  Marine  Museum  at 
Salem,  Mass.  He  had  no  faith  in  the  superstitions  with  which 
seafaring  men  are  haunted,  and  rather  preferred  to  go  out  of 
port  on  Friday.  On  one  of  his  most  successful  voyages  he 
left  Salem  on  a  Friday,  called  at  two  European  ports,  reaching 
and  leaving  both  on  Fridays,  and  it  was  on  a  Friday  that  he 
finally  reached  home.  His  daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  James  Free- 
man Dana,  has  described  him  as  "  tall  and  well  formed,  with  a 
sensible,  frank,  cheerful  countenance.  He  had  clear  blue 
eyes,  dark-brown  hair,  which  became  silvery  white  at  an  early 
period  of  life,  and  a  fair  complexion,  somewhat  embrowned  by 
exposure."  She  also  speaks  of  him  as  ever  ready  to  assist  any 
who  might  require  aid — one  whom  the  weakest  or  lowliest 
might  appeal  to  with  the  certainty  of  receiving  a  kind  re- 
sponse. Lucy  Giddings  was  married  to  him  when  she  was 
sixteen  years  of  age.  She  was  very  handsome  and  viva- 

311 


SAMUEL    LUTHER   DANA. 


SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA. 

1795-1868. 

SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA,  the  second  son  of  Lucy  (Giddings) 
and  Captain  Luther  Dana,  was  born  July  u,  1795,  in  the  town 
of  Amherst,  not  far  from  Nashua,  N.  H.  He  was  descended 
from  Richard  Dana  who  came  to  this  country  and  settled  in 
Cambridge  about  1640.  His  father  was  a  native  of  Groton, 
Mass.,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Revolutionary  War  en- 
tered the  navy  of  the  United  States  as  a  midshipman,  he  being 
then  seventeen  years  of  age.  Soon  after  his  marriage  in  1788, 
he  took  up  his  residence  at  Amherst,  and  engaged  in  mercan- 
tile business.  This  not  proving  successful  he  took  to  the  sea 
again,  becoming  a  shipmaster  in  the  merchant  service.  He 
followed  the  sea  until  a  few  years  before  his  death,  in  1832, 
and  made  about  seventy  voyages  to  ports  in  Europe,  Asia,  and 
America.  Captain  Dana  was  fond  of  knowledge  and  took 
pleasure  in  collecting  objects  of  natural  history,  many  valu- 
able specimens  being  given  by  him  to  the  Marine  Museum  at 
Salem,  Mass.  He  had  no  faith  in  the  superstitions  with  which 
seafaring  men  are  haunted,  and  rather  preferred  to  go  out  of 
port  on  Friday.  On  one  of  his  most  successful  voyages  he 
left  Salem  on  a  Friday,  called  at  two  European  ports,  reaching 
and  leaving  both  on  Fridays,  and  it  was  on  a  Friday  that  he 
finally  reached  home.  His  daughter-in-law,  Mrs.  James  Free- 
man Dana,  has  described  him  as  "  tall  and  well  formed,  with  a 
sensible,  frank,  cheerful  countenance.  He  had  clear  blue 
eyes,  dark-brown  hair,  which  became  silvery  white  at  an  early 
period  of  life,  and  a  fair  complexion,  somewhat  embrowned  by 
exposure."  She  also  speaks  of  him  as  ever  ready  to  assist  any 
who  might  require  aid — one  whom  the  weakest  or  lowliest 
might  appeal  to  with  the  certainty  of  receiving  a  kind  re- 
sponse. Lucy  Giddings  was  married  to  him  when  she  was 
sixteen  years  of  age.  She  was  very  handsome  and  viva- 

311 


3I2  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

cious,  and  managed  the  affairs  of  her  home  and  family  during 
her  husband's  long  absences  at  sea  with  rare  judgment  and 
tact. 

As  Captain  Dana's  residence  was  not  confined  by  his  call- 
ing to  any  particular  place,  he  changed  it  twice  for  the  benefit 
of  his  boys.  In  1804  he  removed  to  Exeter,  N.  H.,  in  order  to 
give  them  the  educational  advantages  of  Phillips  Academy, 
and  five  years  later,  when  the  two  oldest  had  been  prepared 
to  enter  Harvard  College,  the  family  removed  to  Cambridge. 
Samuel  passed  through  college  in  the  same  class  with  his 
older  brother,  graduating- in  1813.  From  a  pamphlet  privately 
printed,  containing  memoirs  of  several  members  of  the  Dana 
family,  it  is  learned  that  the  two  brothers  were  endowed  with 
the  same  love  for  natural  science,  and  entered  upon  the  study 
of  certain  branches  of  it  with  great  enthusiasm.  They  often 
made  excursions  together  on  foot  through  the  country  lying 
within  thirty  miles  around  Boston,  for  the  purpose  of  examin- 
ing its  geological  structure  and  collecting  mineralogical  speci- 
mens. The  result  of  these  researches  was  a  volume  on  the 
Mineralogy  and  Geology  of  Boston  and  its  Vicinity,  published 
by  the  brothers  about  the  time  they  completed  their  medical 
studies. 

The  younger  brother  also  employed  himself  upon  these 
excursions  in  searching  for  entomological  specimens,  and 
formed  quite  a  large  collection  of  beautifully  prepared  in- 
sects. This  was  afterward  given  to  the  Linnsean  Society  of 
New  England,  of  which  the  brothers,  if  not  the  founders, 
were  among  the  earliest  members.  Another  taste  which 
formed  a  strong  bond  of  union  between  them  was  their 
love  of  music.  In  college  they  belonged  to  the  same  musical 
societies. 

On  graduating  from  college  Samuel  began  reading  law  with 
his  uncle,  Judge  Samuel  Dana,  then  residing  in  Charlestown, 
Mass.  The  War  of  1812  was  in  progress,  and  young  Dana 
caught  the  prevailing  military  spirit.  He  applied  for  a  cadet- 
ship  at  West  Point,  but  received  instead  a  commission  as  first 
lieutenant  in  the  First  U.  S.  Artillery,  with  which  corps  he 
served  in  New  York  and  Virginia  until  the  close  of  the  war. 
In  June,  1815,  the  army  was  disbanded  and  Dana  resigned 
his  commission. 

A  younger  brother,   Nathaniel  G.  Dana,  was   a  cadet  at 


SAMUEL   LUTHER   DANA. 


313 


West  Point  during  the  War  of  1812,  graduating  in  1814.     He 
remained  in  military  life  until  his  death  in  1833. 

Samuel  did  not  return  to  the  law,  but  took  up  the  study  of 
medicine  under  Dr.  Bancroft,  of  Groton.  Receiving  his  med- 
ical degree  in  1818,  he  began  the  practise  of  his  profession 
in  Gloucester,  Mass.  The  next  year  he  married  Ann  Theo- 
dora, daughter  of  Rev.  Joseph  Willard,  D.  D.,  who  had  been 
President  of  Harvard  College  from  1781  till  his  death 
in  1804. 

Dr.  Dana  now  took  up  his  abode  in  Waltham,  Mass.,  where 
he  practised  medicine  until  1826.  Toward  the  close  of  .this 
period  he  established  a  laboratory  for  the  production  of  sul- 
phuric acid  and  bleaching  salts.  This  enterprise  soon  devel- 
oped into  the  Newton  Chemical  Company,  of  which  he  was 
chemist  till  1834.  His  friend  Dr.  A.  A.  Hayes,  in  the  memo- 
rial pamphlet  of  the  Dana  family,  has  testified  to  his  wide 
knowledge  of  the  properties  of  substances  and  his  great 
fertility  in  original  devices  for  general  and  technological 
work.  In  his  manufacture  of  acids  and  other  chemicals  im- 
proved plans  and  processes  were  early  employed,  and  Dr. 
Hayes  mentions  especially  Dana's  device  for  deoxidizing  man- 
ganic oxide  by  heating  it  with  sulphur,  in  order  to  form  from 
it  (with  pyroligneous  acid)  a  crude  manganous  acetate,  then 
largely  used  in  dyeing  a  fast  brown. 

The  second  of  Dr.  Dana's  published  writings  was  issued  in 
1833,  while  he  was  on  a  visit  to  England.  It  was  a  clear  ex- 
position of  the  chemical  changes  occurring  in  the  manufacture 
of  sulphuric  acid. 

In  the  following  year  Dr.  Dana  became  resident  and  con- 
sulting chemist  to  the  Merrimac  Manufacturing  Company,  at 
Lowell,  Mass.,  in  which  position  he  remained  for  the  rest  of 
his  life — a  period  of  thirty-four  years.  The  improvements 
which  he  introduced  into  the  processes  carried  on  in  the 
mills  of  this  company  were  many  and  important.  Dr.  Hayes 
gives  an  outline  of  these.  He  undertook  systematic  re- 
searches on  the  action  of  the  dung  of  beeves — then  used  for 
removing  the  excess  of  mordant  in  printing  calicoes  with 
madder — which  resulted  in  the  discovery  that  crude  phos- 
phates in  a  bath  with  bran  are  a  complete  substitute  for  the 
expensive  and  disgusting  material  before  deemed  indispen- 
sable. Arseniates,  which  are  cheaper  than  phosphates,  were 

21 


314 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


afterward  substituted  for  them  on  the  suggestion  of  Mercer, 
and  are  the  worldwide  reliance  of  print  manufacturers  at  the 
present  day. 

Of  the  same  systematic  character  was  his  study  of  the 
chemical  changes  involved  in  the  process  of  bleaching  cotton 
fabrics  preparatory  to  printing  them.  This  inquiry  resulted  in 
his  inventing  a  method  which  not  only  received  high  com- 
mendation as  scientific  work  but  was  universally  adopted  in 
practice.  As  most  of  Dr.  Dana's  researches  were  made  for 
the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  company  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected, their  results  were  not  always  published  promptly,  and 
hence  the  abilities  that  might  have  won  a  high  meed  of  fame 
remained  known  to  only  a  small  circle.  His  discoveries  with 
respect  to  bleaching  cotton,  however,  were  published  in  the 
Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Industrielle  de  Mulhouse  in  1838.  The 
principles  therein  established  have  led  to  the  American  method 
of  bleaching,  of  which  Persez,  in  his  Traite"  de  1'Impression 
des  Tissues,  says  that  "  it  realizes  the  perfection  of  chemical 
operations." 

The  Merrimac  Mills  were  at  first  run  by  water  power 
alone,  but  when  the  works  were  extended  this  was  supple- 
mented by  the  use  of  steam.  Dr.  Dana  was  now  called  to  the 
new  field  of  engineering,  in  addition  to  his  other  duties.  His 
development  of  the  whole  subject  of  the  evaporative  power 
of  coal  and  the  economical  disposition  of  the  heat  in  steam 
and  in  water  of  condensation  is  a  masterly  effort,  embracing 
every  detail,  and  was  in  advance  of  any  published  results  of 
the  time. 

For  several  years  before  he  became  a  resident  of  Lowell, 
Dr.  Dana  was  frequently  called  to  that  city  as  a  consulting 
chemist.  He  was  also  one  of  the  chemists  consulted  by  the 
water  commissioners  of  both  Boston  and  New  York  prior 
to  the  introduction  of  the  Cochituate  and  Croton  water  re- 
spectively. 

"  While  these  varied  applications  of  science  to  most  useful 
purposes  were  daily  occupations,"  says  Dr.  Hayes,  "  he  was 
pursuing  in  his  laboratory  the  great  study  of  his  life — madder, 
its  products  and  its  application  to  dyeing — year  after  year. 
He  deemed  the  subject  exhaustless,  and  while  following  the 
published  results  of  other  labourers  in  the  same  field  as  test 
trials,  I  happen  to  know  that  the  most  important  discoveries, 


SAMUEL  LUTHER  DANA.  315 

from  time  to  time,  were  made  by  him,  and  often  applied,  be- 
fore their  publication  by  others. 

"The  laboratory,  in  most  busy  moments,  was  exceptionally 
neat ;  the  deft  handling  of  the  apparatus  and  order  of  experi- 
ments expressed  the  system  of  thought." 

Soon  after  removing  to  Lowell,  Dr.  Dana  became  interested 
in  the  action  of  lead  upon  water,  and  made  a  report  to  the  City 
Council  of  that  city  on  the  danger  arising  from  the  use  of  lead 
water  pipes.  His  translation  and  systematic  arrangement  of 
the  treatise  of  Tanquerel  on  Lead  Diseases  was  considered  an 
important  contribution  to  medical  knowledge.  The  discussion 
of  the  lead-pipe  question  gave  rise  to  several  pamphlets  from 
Dr.  Dana's  pen. 

Another  division  of  chemistry  in  which  Dr.  Dana  did  valu- 
able work  was  in  its  applications  to  agriculture.  As  the  out- 
come of  a  comprehensive  series  of  experiments  and  observa- 
tions, he  published,  in  1842,  The  Farmer's  Muck  Manual  of 
Manures,  which  was  the  sheet  anchor  of  libraries  in  the  rural 
districts  of  New  England  for  many  years.  The  next  year  an 
Essay  on  Manures  submitted  by  him  won  the  prize  offered  by 
the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society.  He  carried  into  his 
agricultural  investigations  the  same  scientific  methods  that  he 
had  found  so  important  to  success  in  other  technical  inquiries, 
and  added  an  overflowing  love  for  the  pursuit  in  all  its  varied 
bearings.  The  younger  Silliman  wrote  of  him  :  "  In  point  of 
time,  originality,  and  ability,  Dr.  Dana  stood  deservedly 
first  among  scientific  writers  on  agriculture  in  the  United 
States." 

The  fourth  edition  of  the  Muck  Manual  was  published  in 
1855.  Its  preface  states  that  "  The  author  is  not  an  agricultur- 
ist; he  does  not  assume  the  name  even  of  agricultural  chem- 
ist," and  mentions  his  position  at  the  works  of  the  Merrimac 
Company.  "While  pursuing  there,"  it  continues,  "during  the 
years  1835,  1836,  and  1837,  researches  on  the  action  of  cow- 
dung  in  calico  dyeing,  he  pushed  his  inquiries,  as  a  recre- 
ation, during  his  few  leisure  hours,  into  the  nature  and 
action  of  manures  and  of  soil.  Conversation  on  these 
matters  with  the  geological  surveyor,  and  with  the  agri- 
cultural commissioner  of  Massachusetts,  led  to  a  corre- 
spondence between  the  parties,  which  partly  appeared  in 
the  published  reports  on  the  geology  and  agriculture  of 


316  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN    AMERICA. 

Massachusetts.  This  induced  some  zealous  and  active  citi- 
zens of  Lowell  to  ask  me  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  on 
agricultural  chemistry." 

From  the  notes  of  these  lectures  the  Muck  Manual  was 
prepared.  "  The  work,"  Dr.  Dana  states  further,  "  was  fa- 
vourably received  at  home  and  abroad,  where  a  consider- 
able portion  was  reprinted.  It  has  passed  through  sev- 
eral editions,  each  being  enlarged  by  the  addition  of  new 
matter,  to  keep  pace  with  the  times.  To  the  present  edition 
is  added  an  entire  new  chapter  on  bones  and  superphosphates 
of  lime  and  alkalies.  .  .  . 

"  One  word  respecting  the  title  of  my  book.  It  is  my  own. 
I  have  neither  begged,  borrowed,  or  stolen  it.  That  last  has 
been  done  by  an  English  author,  who  seems  to  be  ashamed, 
not  of  the  act,  but  of  the  name  he  has  filched  from  me,  and  so 
eases  his  conscience  by  apologizing  for  his 'homely  title.'  I 
shall  not  discredit  my  child  by  being  ashamed  of  his  name.  It 
was  good  at  the  christening,  and  I  trust  will  be  thought  re- 
spectable in  manhood." 

This  edition  of  the  Manual  consists  of  nine  chapters.  In 
the  first  three  the  author  tells  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  in- 
organic ingredients  of  soil,  and  in  the  fourth  he  describes  simi- 
larly the  organic  constituents.  Dr.  Dana  vigorously  combats 
the  idea  that  the  kind  of  rock  underlying  a  district  has  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  character  of  the  soil  in  that  district,  show- 
ing that  the  soil  at  any  place  is  a  mixture  of  materials,  most  of 
which  have  been  brought  from  a  distance.  His  full  Explana- 
tions of  the  several  topics  that  he  takes  up  are  summarized  in. 
brief  statements  in  a  conspicuous  type,  which  he  puts  forth  as 
the  first,  second,  third,  etc.,  principles  of  agricultural  chemis- 
try. Among  these  are,  "  Rocks  do  not  affect  the  vegetation 
which  covers  them  " ;  "  Soils  contain  enough  of  all  the  mineral 
elements  to  grow  any  crop  "  (but  it  is  otherwise  with  organic 
constituents)  ;  "  One  base  may  be  substituted  for  another  in  an 
equivalent  proportion." 

After  describing  the  mutual  action  of  these  two  classes 
of  substances,  he  takes  up  the  subject  of  manure.  His  chapter 
opens  characteristically  : 

"The  true  farmer,  no  less  a  sage  than  the  ancient  orator 
who  gave  to  action  the  first,  second,  and  third  place  in  elo- 
quence, will  answer,  if  it  is  asked  him  what  is  his  first  requisite, 


SAMUEL   LUTHER  DANA. 


317 


Manure.  What  second  ?  Manure.  What  third  ?  Manure. 
These  answers  are  to  be  united.  Action  and  manure  are  the 
first  and  last  requisites  in  agriculture ;  and  in  the  attempt  to 
show  what  is  the  last,  and  how  it  acts,  will  be  offered  every  in- 
ducement to  action." 

In  the  seventy-five  pages  of  this  chapter  he  describes  the 
action  of  the  manures  of  all  domestic  animals,  also  poudrette 
and  certain  waste  materials  valuable  as  fertilizers — wool  wash- 
ings, soot,  bones,  and  spent  lye  from  soapworks — and  gives  the 
chemical  composition  of  nearly  all. 

In  a  chapter  on  artificial  manures  and  irrigation,  he  deals 
with  the  use  of  swamp  muck  or  peat,  and  tells  how  to  make 
it  a  first-class  fertilizer  by  the  addition  of  soda  ash 
or  potash.  There  are  a  few  pages  on  the  physical  prop- 
erties of  soils,  and  then  the  use  of  bones  as  a  fertilizer  is 
discussed.  An  appendix  contains  the  results  obtained  by 
Dr.  Andrew  Nichols  and  others  with  the  methods  suggested 
by  Dr.  Dana. 

Dr.  Dana's  geological  knowledge  was  kept  bright  and  in- 
creased by  constant  additions  from  the  best  and  latest  authori- 
ties. It  aided  him  greatly  in  his  agricultural  researches.  One 
of  his  courteous  attentions  to  scientific  visitors  was  an  excur- 
sion to  a  travelling  sand,  in  an  outlying  part  of  the  city  of 
Lowell,  which  was  slowly  and  steadily  advancing  over  arable 
land,  converting  it  into  a  desert  place.  His  long-sustained  and 
minute  observations  threw  strong  light  on  the  formation  of 
sedimentary  rock  deposits,  where  currents  of  air  rather  than 
currents  of  water  were  the  active  agent,  and  made  this  field  his 
own. 

Dr.  Dana  died  at  his  residence  in  Lowell,  March  u,  1868,  in 
consequence  of  a  fall  upon  the  ice  at  his  own  doorstep.  In 
person  he  was  tall  and  slender,  with  blue  eyes,  dark-brown  hair, 
and  a  fair  complexion.  The  expression  of  his  countenance  was 
intellectual  and  sympathetic.  He  was  extremely  witty,  and,  in 
his  hours  of  relaxation  from  study,  he  entered  with  great  zest 
into  the  pleasures  of  society,  contributing  his  full  share  to  the 
enjoyment  of  others.  Even  in  his  scientific  writings  his  hu- 
mour had  some  scope,  and  added  a  charm  and  zest  to  his 
descriptions  that  made  them  highly  enjoyable  and  utterly  in- 
imitable. 

Dr.    Dana's    first   wife    died    in    1828   and    he    afterward 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

married  her  sister,  Miss  Augusta  Willard.  James  Jackson, 
the  only  son  of  Dr.  Dana  who  survived  childhood,  when 
arrived  at  a  suitable  age  received  a  commission  in  the 
United  States  army,  and  was  afterward  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  brigadier  general.  Dr.  Dana  also  left  three  daugh- 
ters. 


ZADOC   THOMPSON. 


ZADOC  THOMPSON. 

» 

1796-1856. 

THE  slopes  and  intervales  of  the  Green  Mountains  have 
ever  been  a  home  of  sterling  worth.  Much  of  it  has  lain 
modestly  hidden  unless  some  compelling  occasion  called  it 
forth,  as  the  Revolution  brought  out  Ethan  Allen  and  Stark 
of  Bennington.  This  region  has  had  its  workers  in  science, 
who,  with  more  generous  facilities  or  a  more  assertive  spirit, 
could  have  equalled  in  prominence  many  whom  the  world  calls 
famous.  The  subject  of  the  present  sketch  is  an  example,  for 
he  became  known  in  his  lifetime  only  so  far  as  the  patient 
performance  of  valuable  labours  of  necessity  brought  him 
into  notice. 

Zadoc  Thompson  was  born  in  Bridgewater,  Windsor  County, 
Vt.,  May  23,  1796.  He  was  the  second  son  of  Barnabas  Thomp- 
son, whose  father  was  one  of  the  early  settlers  in  that  part  of 
the  country. 

His  early  life  was  a  continual  struggle  with  poverty.  Hav- 
ing from  childhood  a  passion  for  writing  and  publishing  books, 
he  earned  part  of  the  expenses  of  his  education  in  this  way. 
His  first  publications  were  almanacs,  which  he  sold  travelling 
about  the  State  on  foot.  Thompson's  Almanac  became  as 
famous  in  Vermont  as  Robert  B.  Thomas's  in  Massachusetts, 
and  shared  the  honours  with  the  latter  publication  in  adjoin- 
ing States.  Its  success  was  to  a  large  extent  due,  it  is  said  by 
those  who  should  know,  to  a  chance  remark — it  can  hardly  be 
called  a  prediction — which  came  one  day  when  a  clerk,  who 
was  at  work  upon  the  almanac,  found  that  no  weather  forecast 
had  been  given  for  July.  Prof.  Thompson  was  at  the  time 
much  absorbed  in  some  investigations,  and  when  interrupted 
by  the  printer's  inquiry  as  to  the  July  weather,  hastily  replied, 
"  Say,  Snow  about  this  time."  The  printer  took  him  at  his 
word  and  printed  snow  as  a  part  of  the  probable  weather  for 

319 


320  PIONEERS    OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

July.  Contrary  to  all  expectations  or  precedent,  in  July  of 
that  year  there  was  in  Vermont  a  fall  of  snow  !  This  appar- 
ently remarkable  knowledge  of  the  probabilities  of  the  weather 
made  Prof.  Thompson  famous  as  a  weather  prophet,  and 
greatly  increased  the  sale  of  his  almanacs.  It  should  be  add- 
ed that  Prof.  Thompson  made  constant  use  of  such  meteoro- 
logical instruments  as  he  could  obtain,  and  that  he  was  one  of 
the  first  in  his  State  to  study  the  weather  in  a  careful  and 
scientific  manner. 

Mr.  Thompson  was  graduated  from  the  University  of  Ver- 
mont in  1823,  at  the  advanced  age  of  twenty-seven  years,  and 
immediately  turned  his  attention  to  making  known  the  natural 
and  civil  features  and  history  of  his  native  State  to  its  own  in- 
habitants and  to  the  world  beyond  its  borders,  which  was  the 
chief  occupation  of  his  life.  Within  a  year  his  first  publica- 
tion in  this  field,  a  Gazetteer  of  Vermont,  appeared  at  Mont- 
pelier.  His  first  bound  volume  was  an  arithmetic,  published 
in  1826,  which  had  a  general  sale  through  the  State.  While 
serving  as  principal  of  an  academy  in  Canada,  he  issued  a 
geography  and  map  of  Canada  for  schools,  which  passed 
through  several  editions.  In  1832  Mr.  Thompson  edited  and 
was  the  chief  contributor  to  the  Green  Mountain  Repository, 
a  monthly  magazine  published  for  about  a  year  at  Burling- 
ton. In  the  following  year  appeared  his  History  of  Vermont 
from  its  earliest  settlement  to  the  close  of  the  year  1832. 

Taking  up  the  study  of  theology  and  supporting  himself 
in  part  by  teaching  in  the  Vermont  Episcopal  Institute  and 
elsewhere,  he  was  prepared  for  orders,  and  became  a  deacon 
in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  1836.  He  preached 
from  time  to  time  in  various  parishes  of  northern  Vermont 
and  New  York,  and  usually  supplied  the  pulpit  of  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Burlington,  during  the  illness  or  absence  of  the  rector. 
His  health  not  being  good  enough  to  allow  of  his  undertaking 
the  labours  of  a  parish,  and  being  a  man  of  "  deep  and  un- 
conquerable modesty  of  spirit,"  he  never  advanced  to  the 
priesthood. 

His  earlier  works  aroused  in  him  a  desire  to  issue  some- 
thing larger  and  fuller  in  the  same  line,  and  for  many  years  he 
industriously  collected  from  various  "  oldest  inhabitants  "  and 
scattered  records  facts  relating  to  the  history,  geography,  and 
natural  resources  of  Vermont.  From  1838  to  1842  he  devoted 


ZADOC   THOMPSON.  321 

most  of  his  time  to  putting  together  these  materials  and  pub- 
lishing the  resulting  Natural,  Civil,  and  Statistical  History  of 
Vermont.  His  attainments  in  natural  history  were  at  that 
time  limited,  and  he  obtained  considerable  assistance  in  pre- 
paring the  accounts  of  the  plants  and  several  classes  of 
animals  for  this  book  from  other  New  England  naturalists. 
Having  made  the  mammalia  quite  a  specialty,  he  described 
these  himself. 

The  undertaking  was  most  thoroughly  and  conscientiously 
carried  out,  and  by  the  time  the  book  was  ready  for  the  press 
all  his  savings  had  been  expended.  At  this  juncture  the 
Burlington  publisher,  Mr.  Chauncey  Goodrich,  who  was  a 
neighbour  and  friend  of  Mr.  Thompson,  offered  to  get  out  the 
book  for  him  at  the  usual  prices  for  the  labour  and  materials 
without  any  contingent  share  in  the  profit,  and  to  wait  for 
payment  from  the  sales  of  the  work.  This  generous  offer  was 
promptly  accepted,  and  the  volume,  consisting  of  six  hundred 
and  fifty-six  closely  printed  octavo  pages,  was  duly  issued. 
There  were  three  parts  to  the  work,  each  of  which,  if  printed 
less  compactly,  would  have  made  a  fair-sized  volume.  The 
first  was  devoted  to  the  natural  features  and  productions  of 
the  State  ;  the  second  was  the  civil  history  ;  and  the  third  was 
Mr.  Thompson's  Gazetteer,  revised  and  enlarged.  When  Mr. 
Goodrich  several  times  urged  him  to  issue  it  in  three  volumes 
at  six  dollars  instead  of  one  volume  at  two  dollars  and  fifty 
cents,  and  thereby  get  twice  as  much  profit  from  each  copy, 
he  steadily  declined.  Having  felt  the  inconvenience  of  limited 
means  himself,  his  sympathies  were  with  those  in  the  same 
position,  and  he  did  not  deem  it  right  that  those  who  could 
not  afford  the  higher  price  should  be  deprived  of  a  benefit 
that  their  richer  neighbours  enjoyed,  even  though  the  lower 
price  would  give  him  but  scant  return  for  the  labour,  time, 
and  money  he  had  expended.  On  its  appearance  the  General 
Assembly  of  Vermont,  regarding  the  work  as  a  benefit  to  the 
State,  subscribed  for  a  hundred  copies  and  voted  five  hundred 
dollars  to  the  author.  By  this  means  and  the  proceeds  of 
other  sales  he  was  enabled  to  cancel  his  debt  to  his  publisher 
in  little  more  than  a  year. 

At  about  this  time  Mr.  Thompson  issued  a  text-book  on 
the  Geology  and  Geography  of  Vermont,  in  which  his  power 
of  clear  and  concise  statement  is  well  exemplified.  He  found 


322 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 


time  also  to  prepare  annual  astronomical  calculations  for  the 
Messrs.  Waltons,  of  Montpelier.  In  1845  he  issued  a  pamphlet 
Guide  to  Lake  George  and  Lake  Champlain,  with  a  map  and 
other  illustrations. 

A  State  Geological  Survey  having  been  authorized  by  the 
General  Assembly,  the  Governor  in  1845  appointed  Prof.  Charles 
B.  Adams  State  Geologist.  Prof.  Adams  chose  Mr.  Thompson 
and  the  Rev.  S.  R.  Hall  as  his  assistants.  In  one  season  these 
two  men  explored  together  one  hundred  and  ten  townships. 
The  analyses  required  by  the  survey  were  made  at  New 
Haven  by  Denison  Olmsted,  Jr.,  until  his  death  in  1846, 
afterward  by  Thomas  Sterry  Hunt.  The  survey  came  to  an 
untimely  end  by  the  refusal  of  the  General  Assembly  of 
i847-'48  to  make  an  appropriation  for  preparing  its  final  re- 
port. The  notes,  specimens,  and  other  materials  gathered 
were  allowed  to  lie  in  boxes  at  Burlington  and  Montpelier 
for  about  a  year.  Then,  having  had  a  partial  sense  of  the 
value  of  these  materials  impressed  upon  it,  the  General  Assem- 
bly authorized  the  Governor  to  appoint  some  suitable  person 
to  get  them  together  and  deposit  them  in  the  State  House. 
Governor  Coolidge  appointed  Prof.  Thompson,  and  the  latter 
reported  the  execution  of  his  commission  in  October,  1849. 
Many  of  the  field  notes  were  in  a  peculiarly  abbreviated 
shorthand  used  by  Prof.  Adams,  and,  on  his  death  in  1853, 
became  almost  wholly  useless. 

In  1847  Governor  Eaton  had  appointed  Prof.  Thompson  to 
carry  out  a  resolution  of  the  General  Assembly  in  regard  to 
international  literary  and  scientific  exchanges.  He  wrote  a 
report  of  proceedings  and  instructions,  presenting  the  advan- 
tages of  the  exchange  system  so  clearly  as  to  reflect  great 
credit  upon  himself  and  upon  his  State. 

From  an  address  which  he  delivered  in  Boston,  in  1850,  on 
the  invitation  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History,  we 
learn  something  of  the  difficulties  under  which  his  knowledge 
of  natural  science  was  obtained.  "  What  I  have  accomplished 
in  the  business  of  natural  history,"  he  said,  "  I  have  done  with- 
out any  associates  engaged  in  like  pursuits,  without  having  any 
access  to  collections  of  specimens,  and  almost  without  books." 
In  this  address,  while  showing  the  difficulties,  he  at  the  same 
time  insisted  upon  the  importance  of  the  cultivation  of  natural 
history  in  country  places.  A  habit  of  observation  and  com- 


ZADOC  THOMPSON.  323 

parison  of  objects,  he  said,  could  be  acquired  quite  as  readily 
in  the  country  as  in  the  city.  He  urged  that  the  study  of  nat- 
ural history  should  be  introduced  more  generally  into  our  col- 
leges and  common  schools,  for  the  reason  that  such  a  study 
"  would  refine  and  improve  the  moral  sensibilities  of  our  peo- 
ple, and  sharpen  and  invigorate  their  intellectual  powers." 
Prof.  Thompson's  love  for  natural  history  was  inborn,  and 
throughout  his  life  amounted  to  absolute  devotion.  It  was 
the  supreme  force  in  his  life.  From  early  childhood  until  the 
end,  his  diligent  study  of  Nature  and  zeal  in  collecting  facts, 
and  objects  to  illustrate  them,  never  faltered.  He  was  not 
only  a  student  of  Nature  but  her  ardent  and  most  constant 
lover.  He  also  enjoyed  mathematical  studies  and  was  fond 
of  statistics,  and  these  qualities  rendered  his  work  in  all 
departments  of  science  more  accurate  and  orderly  than  it 
might  otherwise  have  been. 

Certain  of  his  friends  (his  modest  worth  had  made  him 
many  of  these),  knowing  his  great  desire  to  see  the  Exhibi- 
tion of  1851  at  London,  furnished  him  the  means  of  making 
the  trip.  After  an  absence  of  three  months,  during  which  he 
had  spent  some  time  in  Paris,  he  returned  to  his  home  in 
Burlington  much  benefited  in  spirit  and  in  health.  Yielding 
to  repeated  solicitation,  he  published  soon  after  his  Journal 
of  a  Trip  to  London,  Paris,  and  the  Great  Exhibition  in  1851, 
which  gave  a  most  realizing  impression  of  what  he  had  seen  to 
those  who  had  not  made  the  trip. 

In  the  ten  years  following  the  publication  of  his  History  of 
Vermont,  railroads  and  telegraphs  were  introduced  into  the 
State,  and  various  discoveries  in  its  natural  history  were  made, 
all  of  which  furnished  him  material  for  a  valuable  supplement 
of  sixty-four  pages,  issued  early  in  1853.  The  General  Assem- 
bly of  this  year  discovered  what  a  blunder  had  been  made  in 
strangling  the  geological  survey,  and  passed  a  bill  appointing 
Prof.  Thompson  State  Naturalist,  "  to  enter  upon  a  thorough 
prosecution  and  completion  of  the  geological  survey  of  the 
State,  embracing  therein  a  full  and  scientific  examination  and 
description  of  its  rocks,  soils,  metals,  and  minerals ;  make  care- 
ful and  complete  assays  and  analyses  of  the  same,  and  prepare 
the  results  of  his  labours  for  publication  under  the  three  follow- 
ing titles,  to  wit :  first,  Physical  Geography,  Scientific  Geology 
and  Mineralogy ;  second,  Economical  Geology,  embracing  Bot- 


324  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

any  and  Agriculture  ;  third,  General  Zoology  of  the  State."  At 
first  he  planned  to  do  no  more  than  collate  and  arrange  such 
material  as  had  been  accumulated  by  his  predecessors ;  but  he 
soon  found  this  very  unsatisfactory,  and,  abandoning  this  plan, 
he  undertook  to  go  over  the  whole  ground  anew.  He  had  for 
years  been  unknowingly  preparing  for  just  this  task,  and  he 
threw  himself  into  it  with  his  accustomed  energy  and  devotion, 
and  suspended  all  other  work;  but  ere  long  his  overtaxed 
strength  gave  way,  and  his  last  illness  was  upon  him.  At  first 
he  seemed  unwilling  to  lay  aside  a  task  so  congenial,  and 
which  he  so  greatly  desired  to  finish;  but  soon  his  naturally 
quiet  and  trustful  disposition  overcame  all  discontent,  and  in 
full  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  the  God  in  whom  he  had  always 
trusted  and  whom  he  had  tried  to  serve,  he  came  to  the  end  in 
peace,  on  January  19,  1856.  At  this  time  he  also  held  the  pro- 
fessorship of  Natural  History  in  the  University  of  Vermont,  to 
which  he  had  been  appointed  in  1852. 

His  friend  for  over  a  score  of  years,  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Brewer, 
editor  of  the  Boston  Atlas,  and  himself  a  naturalist  of  no  small 
ability,  thus  referred  to  Prof.  Thompson's  death :  "  His  loss, 
both  as  a  citizen  and  a  public  man — he  has  not  left  his  superior 
in  science  behind  him  in  his  own  State — is  one  of  no  ordinary 
character.  We  have  known  him  long  and  well ;  and  in  speak- 
ing of  such  a  loss  we  know  not  which  most  to  sympathize  with, 
the  family  from  whom  has  been  taken  the  upright,  devoted,  and 
kind-hearted  head,  or  that  larger  family  of  science  who  have 
lost  an  honoured  and  most  valuable  member.  Modest  and 
unassuming,  diligent  and  indefatigable  in  his  scientific  pur- 
suits, attentive  to  all,  whether  about  him  or  at  a  distance,  and 
whether  friends  or  strangers,  no  man  will  be  more  missed,  not 
merely  in  his  immediate  circle  of  family  and  friends,  but  in 
that  larger  sphere  of  the  lovers  of  natural  science,  than  Zadoc 
Thompson." 

When  his  death  was  announced  to  the  Boston  Society  of 
Natural  History,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  Prof.  William  B. 
Rogers  took  occasion  to  express  the  high  respect  in  which  he 
had  held  him  as  a  thorough  and  persevering  worker  in  geology, 
saying  that  he  possessed  a  larger  amount  of  accurate  practical 
knowledge  than  would  have  been  supposed  from  his  modest 
and  retiring  manners,  and  exhibited  a  great  natural  sagacity 
in  those  departments  of  science  which  he  loved. 


ZADOC   THOMPSON. 


325 


No  account  of  the  life  and  labours  of  Prof.  Thompson  is  at 
all  complete  without  some  mention  of  his  wife,  for  without  her 
aid  arid  sympathy  he  never  could  have  accomplished  what  he 
did.  In  childhood  they  roamed  the  fields  together  in  search 
of  interesting  objects,  and  later,  as  husband  and  wife,  they 
pursued  with  increased  enthusiasm  the  same  study  of  Nature ; 
and  long  after  Mr.  Thompson's  death  his  wife  continued  her 
observations  of  animals  and  plants.  Moreover,  being  a  very 
shrewd  and  efficient  manager  in  all  household  matters,  she  was 
able  to  carry  the  family  through  financial  difficulties  which 
otherwise  would  have  frustrated  many  of  her  husband's  scien- 
tific undertakings.  Their  house  was  not  only  a  home,  but  it 
was  also  a  museum  and  a  laboratory.  It  was  a  very  modest 
little  white  cottage,  surrounded  by  a  profusion  of  flowers  when 
the  season  permitted,  and  inside,  every  available  shelf  or  stand 
was  crowded  with  specimens  which  either  had  been  or  were  to 
be  carefully  studied,  while  not  seldom  there  were  in  or  about 
the  house  pens,  cages,  or  tubs  in  which  were  kept  many  living 
animals,  whose  daily  life  was  under  closest  scrutiny.  Mrs. 
Thompson  not  only  tolerated  these  inroads  upon  her  housekeep- 
ing, but  delighted  to  assist  her  husband  in  his  work,  and  really 
deserves  to  be  considered  a  colleague  in  many  of  his  labours. 

Personally,  Prof.  Thompson  was  tall,  angular,  of  a  very 
quiet  and  sedate  yet  very  pleasant  manner,  a  man  of  most 
amiable  and  sweet  temper,  loved  by  all  who  knew  him,  and 
respected  for  his  sound  sense  and  accurate  judgment.  Though 
retiring  by  nature,  he  was  fond  of  long  chats  aroundthe  winter 
hearth  with  such  neighbours  as  were  congenial.  Prof.  Joseph 
Torrey  was  his  most  intimate  friend,  being  an  excellent  bota- 
nist, and  with  him  Mr.  Thompson's  intercourse  was  most  de- 
lightful. He  was  simple,  almost  childlike  in  his  tastes.  Natu- 
rally somewhat  conservative,  his  training  in  science  had  given 
him  an  open  mind  to  all  new  truth.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
the  sober  manner  which  he  usually  maintained  came  from  the 
shadow  of  death  which  had  long  rested  upon  him.  He  was 
affected  by  organic  disease  of  the  heart,  which  finally  ended 
his  life,  and  for  many  years,  knowing  the  possibility  of  sudden 
death,  he  did  not  trust  himself  far  from  home  alone.  Most 
often  his  companion  was  a  Mr.  Hills,  who  was  draughtsman 
and  engraver  of  nearly  if  not  quite  all  the  cuts  used  in  his 
publications. 


326  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

The  museum  in  the  Vermont  State  House  contains  about 
three  thousand  specimens  collected  by  Prof.  Thompson.  He 
was  one  of  the  most  reliable  correspondents  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution,  and  corresponded  also  with  many  of  the 
leading  naturalists  both  at  home  and  abroad.  His  achieve- 
ments won  him  a  medal  from  the  French  Exposition  of  1855. 


JOHN    TORREY. 


JOHN  TORREY. 

1796-1873. 

ALTHOUGH  never  noted  as  a  scientific  centre,  the  city  of 
New  York  has  had  several  men  of  science  of  eminent  abilities. 
Among  the  foremost  of  these  was  the  subject  of  the  present 
article. 

John  Torrey  was  born  in  New  York,  August  15,  1796.  He 
lived  most  of  his  life  in  that  city  and  died  there  March  10, 
1873.  He  is  believed  to  have  been  descended  from  William 
Torrey,  who  emigrated  from  Somersetshire,  in  England,  and 
settled  at  Weymouth,  Mass.,  about  1640.  His  grandfather, 
John  Torrey,  and  his  father,  William,  removed  from  Boston  to 
Montreal  when  the  Boston  Port  Bill  came  into  force.  William, 
then  a  boy  of  seventeen,  soon  ran  away  to  New  York  and 
joined  a  Continental  regiment  of  which  his  uncle  was  major. 
He  was  made  an  ensign,  served  throughout  the  war,  and  re- 
ceived his  discharge  as  a  captain.  His  father  also  came  down 
from  Canada  and  served  as  quartermaster  of  the  same  regi- 
ment. 

Captain  Torrey  married  Margaret  Nichols,  of  New  York,  in 
1791.  John  was  their  second  child  and  the  first  that  reached 
adult  age.  His  birthplace  was  in  John  Street,  a  locality  long 
since  given  over  to  trade.  He  has  been  heard  to  tell  that 
when  a  boy  of  some  twelve  years  of  age  he  was  sent  on  an 
errand  one  evening  as  far  as  Canal  Street,  and  that  he  consid- 
ered it  a  great  hardship  to  be  obliged  to  go  so  far  into  the 
country  after  dark.  When  he  was  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  old 
his  father  was  appointed  fiscal  agent  of  the  State  prison  at 
Greenwich,  whither  the  family  removed.  Canal  Street  is  now 
considered  to  be  away  down  town,  while  Greenwich,  although 
a  suburban  village  in  1812,  is  also  a  down-town  district,  being 
below  Fourteenth  Street. 

Young  Torrey  received  his  education  in  the  public  schools 


328  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

of  his  native  city,  with  the  addition  of  one  year  at  a  school  in 
Boston.  He  had  in  youth  a  strong  liking  for  machinery,  and 
at  one  time  had  the  intention  of  becoming  a  machinist,  but 
chemistry  offered  still  greater  attractions,  and  he  finally  con- 
cluded to  study  medicine.  His  mechanical  talent  was  in  after 
years  of  great  service  to  Dr.  Torrey,  as  it  enabled  him  to  de- 
vise and  construct  various  ingenious  forms  of  apparatus  for 
the  illustration  of  his  lectures.  While  in  his  teens  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  that  famous  teacher  of  science,  Amos 
Eaton,  who  explained  to  him  the  structure  of  flowers  and  thus 
kindled  a  zeal  for  botanical  study  that  persisted  to  the  end 
of  his  pupil's  life.  Torrey's  interest  in  natural  science  soon 
extended  to  mineralogy  and  chemistry,  probably  determining 
his  choice  of  a  profession.  In  1815  he  entered  the  office  of  Dr. 
Wright  Post,  then  one  of  the  leading  physicians  of  the  city. 
At  that  day  physicians  dispensed  their  own  medicines,  and  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  office  students  to  prepare  the  various 
powders,  tinctures,  etc.,  and  put  up  the  prescriptions  for  the 
patients.  The  writer  has  frequently  heard  Prof.  Torrey  refer 
to  the  great  value  this  experience  was  to  him  in  after-life,  as  it 
gave  him  an  early  training  in  chemical  manipulation  such  as 
the  medical  students  of  the  present  day  rarely  acquire. 

Dr.  Torrey  took  his  degree  in  1818  at  the  College  of  Physi- 
cians and  Surgeons,  in  New  York,  where  Drs.  Mitchill  and 
Hosack,  then  among  the  leaders  of  science  in  America,  were 
professors.  He  opened  an  office  in  New  York  city,  but  he 
never  liked  the  practice  ef  medicine,  and  did  not  try  very 
earnestly  to  become  established  in  it,  and  we  find  him,  in  1824, 
entering  upon  the  duties  of  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  the 
United  States  Military  Academy  at  WTest  Point.  At  this  time 
he  married  Miss  Eliza  Robinson  Shaw,  of  New  York.  We 
may  here  remark  that  Dr.  Torrey's  scientific  life  was  twofold. 
While  he  is  best  known  to  the  world  as  a  botanist,  it  was  as  a 
chemist  that  he  found  his  remunerative  occupation.  From  the 
time  of  his  acceptance  of  the  chair  at  West  Point,  up  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  he  was  engaged  either  in  teaching  chemistry 
or  in  some  position  to  which  his  profound  chemical  knowledge 
adapted  him. 

In  early  life  Prof.  Torrey  was  an  enthusiastic  mineralogist, 
and  the  first  and  following  volumes  of  the  American  Journal 
of  Science  contain  important  contributions  made  by  him  to  this 


JOHN   TORREY.  329 

science.  His  botanical  career  commenced  while  he  was  yet  a 
student  of  medicine.  In  1817  he  aided  in  founding  the  New 
York  Lyceum  of  Natural  History,  and  was  one  of  the  eleven 
corporators  named  in  the  charter  of  that  institution.  The  early 
volumes  of  the  Annals  of  the  Lyceum  are  enriched  by  some  of 
his  most  important  contributions  to  science.  His  first  botanical 
publication  was  A  Catalogue  of  Plants  growing  spontaneously 
within  Thirty  Miles  of  the  City  of  New  York.  This  was  pre- 
sented to  the  Lyceum  in  1817,  but  was  not  published  until  1819. 
It  contains  100  pages,  is  now  exceedingly  rare,  and  chance 
copies  offered  at  sales  of  libraries  bring  fabulous  prices.  We 
find  quoted  in  this  catalogue  the  names  of  those  who  were  dis- 
tinguished botanists  half  a  century  ago,  the  author  acknowl- 
edging aid  from  Mitchill,  Nuttall,  Rafinesque,  Eaton,  Eddy,  Le 
Conte,  Cooper,  and  others.  When  we  consider  the  youth  of  the 
author,  barely  twenty-one,  we  must  regard  this  catalogue  as  a 
remarkable  performance.  Only  those  who  have  undertaken 
similar  works  can  appreciate  the  amount  of  labour  necessary 
to  its  production,  and  botanists  who  go  over  the  same  ground 
at  the  present  day  wonder  at  the  completeness  of  the  list.  It 
gives  us  some  idea  of  the  astonishing  growth  of  the  city  to 
read  in  this  catalogue  of  some  of  the  author's  favourite  locali- 
ties, such  as  "  Love  Lane,"  "  Bogs  near  Greenwich,"  and 
"  Swamp  behind  the  Botanic  Garden,"  places  that  have  long 
been  covered  by  paved  streets  and  brick  and  brown-stone 
blocks. 

This  catalogue,  was  the  precursor  of  a  considerable  number 
of  most  valuable  botanical  publications.  One  of  the  earliest  of 
these  was  A  Flora  of  the  Northern  and  Middle  United  States, 
or  a  Systematic  Arrangement  and  Description  of  all  the  Plants 
heretofore  discovered  in  the  United  States  north  of  Virginia. 
Elliott's  Botany  of  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  was  being  pub- 
lished in  numbers  at  the  time  Dr.  Torrey  commenced  this 
Flora,  which,  as  he  says  in  his  preface,  was  intended  as  a 
"  counterpart "  to  Elliott's  work.  Like  the  latter,  his  was  is- 
sued in  numbers,  and  the  first  volume  was  completed  in  1824. 
But  one  volume  of  this  work  was  published,  and,  as  a  portion 
of  the  edition  was  destroyed  by  fire,  it  is  now  only  rarely  to  be 
met  with.  It  contains  over  five  hundred  pages,  and  includes 
the  first  twelve  classes  of  the  Linnsean  system,  the  species 
being  described  with  a  clearness  and  minuteness  and  the  synon- 

22 


330  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

ymy  elaborated  with  a  care  not  heretofore  displayed  in  any 
work  upon  American  botany.  It  was  the  first  work  in  which 
our  Northern  grasses  were  treated  in  a  thorough  manner,  and 
students  of  the  Graminacecz  at  the  present  day  find  it  a  most 
useful  book  of  reference.  At  an  early  day  the  author  foresaw 
that  the  Linnsean  system  must  be  superseded  by  the  natural 
system  of  Jussieu.  This  consideration,  together  with  the  loss 
of  a  large  part  of  the  first  volume,  led  him  to  abandon  the 
undertaking.  In  order  to  supply  the  immediate  wants  of  stu- 
dents, he  prepared  a  compendium,  which  gave  brief  descrip- 
tions of  the  plants  contained  in  the  first  volume  of  the  Flora 
and  of  those  which  would  have  been  included  in  the  second 
volume. 

In  the  same  year  he  published,  jointly  with  Schweinitz,  A 
Monograph  of  the  North  American  Species  of  Carex.  Two 
years  later  his  paper  entitled  Some  Account  of  a  Collection  of 
Plants  made  during  a  Journey  to  and  from  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains in  the  Summer  of  1820,  by  Edwin  P.  James,  M.  D.,  Assist- 
ant-Surgeon United  States  Army,  was  read  before  the  Lyceum, 
but  it  was  not  published  until  1828.  It  is  a  memoir  of  some 
eighty  pages,  and  enumerates  four  hundred  and  eighty-one 
plants,  many  of  which  were  new  species.  This  was,  up  to  the 
date  of  its  publication,  the  author's  most  important  contribu- 
tion to  science,  and  is  even  now  frequently  referred  to  by  the 
student  of  our  Western  plants.  Besides,  it  has  an  especial  in- 
terest, as  it  was  the  first  American  work  of  any  importance  in 
which  the  arrangement  was  according  to  the  natural  system, 
the  only  earlier  publication  in  which  this  system  was  followed 
being  a  list  by  Abbe  Correa,  of  the  genera  in  Muhlenberg's 
catalogue,  arranged  according  to  the  natural  orders  of  Jussieu. 

In  1838  The  Flora  of  North  America,  by  John  Torrey  and 
Asa  Gray,  was  commenced.  It  was  published  in  numbers,  and 
at  irregular  intervals,  until  the  year  1843.  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  then 
a  young  physician  in  Western  New  York,  who  had  already  shown 
great  acuteness  in  his  investigations  of  the  flora  of  the  part  of 
the  State  in  which  he  resided,  was  happily  associated  with  Dr. 
Torrey  in  this  great  undertaking  of  publishing  a  Flora  of  North 
America.  The  work  was  suspended  with  the  completion  of  the 
Composite,  and  for  sufficient  reasons.  Just  at  this  time  our 
Government  began  to  explore  its  Western  territory,  soon 
greatly  enlarged  by  the  annexation  of  Texas  and  the  acquisi- 


JOHN  TORREY.  33! 

tions  by  the  war  with  Mexico.  New  botanical  material  accu- 
mulated at  an  astonishing  rate,  and  our 'chief  botanists  had  to 
choose  between  continuing  the  Flora,  and  allowing  these  bo- 
tanical treasures  to  pass  into  other  hands.  They  wisely  deter- 
mined to  devote  themselves  to  elaborating  the  new  material, 
knowing  that  this  work  would  be  contributing  to  the  future 
flora  of  North  America,  which,  from  the  enlarged  possessions 
and  more  thorough  exploration  of  the  older  territory,  must 
be  taken  up  anew.  Both  authors  industriously  worked  at 
the  collections  brought  home  by  the  various  Government  and 
private  explorers ;  those  wholly  or  in  large  part  examined  by 
Dr.  Torrey  were  those  of  Nicollet's  expedition,  Fremont's  ex- 
peditions to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  to  Oregon  and  North 
California,  Emory's  reconnaissance,  Captain  Stansbury's  expedi- 
tion to  the  Great  Salt  Lake,  Captain  Marcy's  exploration  of  the 
Red  River  of  Louisiana,  Captain  Sitgreaves's  expedition  to  the 
Zuni  and  Colorado  Rivers,  the  Mexican  Boundary  Survey,  and 
Lieutenant  Ives's  Colorado  exploring  expedition. 

When  the  New  York  State  geological  survey  of  1836  was 
organized,  Dr.  Torrey  was  commissioned  State  botanist.  He 
prepared  for  the  survey  The  Flora  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
being  a  portion  of  The  Natural  History  of  New  York,  and 
issued  in  1843.  This  work  is  in  two  large  quarto  volumes,  of 
over  five  hundred  pages  each,  and  illustrated  with  one  hundred 
and  sixty-one  plates.  The  descriptions  are  all  redrawn,  elab- 
orate, and  in  a  somewhat  popular  style.  It  is  a  most  striking 
testimony  to  the  industry  of  the  author,  who,  while  engaged 
upon  this  work,  and  making  important  explorations  incidental 
to  it,  was  at  the  same  time  discharging  his  professorial  duties 
at  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  and  at  Princeton. 

The  years  i855-'6o  saw  the  publication  of  the  Reports  of 
the  Pacific  Railroad  Survey,  to  the  several  volumes  of  which 
Dr.  Torrey  made  the  following  contributions :  Vol.  II,  Botany 
of  Captain  Pope's  Expedition,  Botany  of  Lieutenant  Beck- 
with's  Expedition,  Botany  of  Captain  Gunnison's  Survey  (in 
these  three  memoirs  Prof.  Asa  Gray  was  joint  author)  ;  Vol. 
IV,  Botany  of  Whipple's  Expedition ;  Vol.  V,  Botany  of  Lieu- 
tenant Williamson's  Report;  Vol.  VIII,  Botany  of  Lieutenant 
Parke's  Expedition. 

We  do  not  include  here  the  contributions  of  Dr.  Torrey  to 
the  memoirs  of  Prof.  Gray  and  others,  for  which  he  frequently 


332 


IK'NEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


elaborated  genera  and  families;  nor  do  we  enumerate  his  minor 
contributions  to  the  sciences. 

Nearly  all  of  these  memoirs  are  illustrated  by  engravings, 
and  some  of  them  profusely.  Dr.  Torrey  rarely  attempted  to 
give  the  portrait  of  a  plant,  leaving  that  to  the  professional 
draughtsman  ;  but  in  all  the  sketches  showing  minute  structure 
— that  which  gave  the  illustrations  their  greatest  value  to  the 
botanist — his  ready  pencil  found  frequent  employment.  He 
drew  with  great  neatness  and  rapidity,  and  it  was  his  custom  to 
record  his  observations  by  means  of  sketches  of  remarkable 
distinctness  and  accuracy. 

For  several  years  subsequent  to  1861  he  was  engaged  in 
herbarium  work.  His  removal  to  Columbia  College,  and  the 
disposal  of  his  most  valuable  collection  to  that  institution,  ren- 
dered it  necessary  that  the  accumulations  of  years,  including 
numerous  typical  specimens,  should  be  put  in  complete  order. 
He  entered  into  the  drudgery  of  assorting,  determining,  label- 
ling, and  mounting  in  the  herbarium  the  mass  of  unarranged 
material,  with  the  same  industry  and  zeal  that  he  brought  to 
more  congenial  work.  No  other  hands  than  his  could  have 
completed  this  important  task,  and  botanists  have  reason  to  be 
grateful  that  he  was  spared  long  enough  to  put  it,  in  some 
respects,  the  most  important  herbarium  in  the  country,  in 
proper  condition  for  study  and  reference. 

This  work  being  completed,  we  find  him,  though  advanced 
in  life,  again  contributing  to  his  favourite  science,  and,  in  1870, 
The  Revision  of  the  Eriogonese,  the  joint  production  of  him- 
self and  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  was  published  in  tin  Proceedings  of 
the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences.  On  the  return 
of  Wilkes's  exploring  expedition,  the  botanical  collections  were 
divided  between  Drs.  Torrey  and  Gray,  except  the  Crypto- 
gamia,  which  were  given  to  specialists.  In  the  division  Dr. 
dray  took  the  extra-American  share,  while  those  collected 
on  our  Pacific  coast  were  elaborated  by  Dr.  Torrey.  Before 
his  memoir  could  be  published,  the  civil  war  came  on,  and 
stopped  all  appropriations  for  such  work.  A  few  months 
before  his  death  the  proposition  to  publish  was  revived,  and 
the  last  botanical  work  of  Dr.  Torrey  was  to  take  up,  during  a 
rally  from  his  fatal  illness,  this  long-delayed  manuscript  of  the 
IjMt.my  of  Wilkes's  expedition,  and  prepare  it  for  the  press. 
Although  his  mind  was  as  clear  and  his  perceptions  as  acute  as 


JOHN   TORREY.  333 

ever,  his  strength  was  unequal  to  the  task.  For  several  years 
his  health  had  been  so  delicate  as  to  cause  anxiety  to  his  family 
and  friends,  and  each  succeeding  winter  he  seemed  to  be  more 
susceptible  to  atmospheric  changes.  In  the  winter  of  i872-.*73 
he  had  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia,  which  left  him  so  weak 
that  he  was  unable  to  rally,  and  his  death,  which  was  in  a 
measure  sudden,  soon  followed.  He  left  one  son  and  three 
daughters,  also  a  grandson,  Gray  Torrey. 

Speaking  of  his  list  of  works  his  pupil  and  associate,  Prof. 
Asa  Gray,  says :  *  "  There  would  have  been  more  to  add,  per- 
haps of  equal  importance,  if  Dr.  Torrey  had  been  as  ready  to 
complete  and  publish  as  he  was  to  investigate,  annotate,  and 
sketch.  Through  undue  diffidence  and  a  constant  desire  for  a 
greater  perfection  than  was  at  the  time  attainable,  many  inter- 
esting observations  have  from  tjme  to  time  been  anticipated 
by  other  botanists."  Throughout  all  his  botanical  labours  the 
flora  of  North  America  was  constantly  kept  in  view,  and  each 
special  monograph  that  he  wrought  out  was  regarded  as  a  piece 
of  material  for  that  grand  edifice — a  complete  system  of  Amer- 
ican botany — which  he  hoped  would  some  day  be  completed. 

"  In  the  estimate  of  Dr.  Torrey's  botanical  work,"  Prof. 
Gray  continues,  "  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was  nearly 
all  done  in  the  intervals  of  a  busy  professional  life."  In  1827 
he  gave  up  his  professorship  of  chemistry  at  West  Point,  already 
alluded  to,  and  took  a  similar  chair  in  the  College  of  Physicians 
and  Surgeons,  where  he  had  received  his  own  medical  degree. 
For  twenty-seven  years  he  held  this  position,  and  for  part  of 
this  time  he  was  also  Professor  of  Chemistry  at  Princeton,  where 
he  was  associated  with  Prof.  Henry.  Then,  in  1854,  a  United 
States  Assay  Office  was  established  at  New  York,  in  which 
Prof.  Torrey  became  the  assayer,  and  so  remained  until  his 
death.  "  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,"  says  Prof.  Gray,  "  se- 
lected Dr.  Torrey  to  be  its  superintendent,  which  would  have 
given  to  the  establishment  the  advantage  of  a  scientific  head. 
But  Dr.  Torrey  resolutely  declined  the  less  laborious  and  bet- 
ter paid  post,  and  took  in  preference  one  the  emoluments  of 
which  were  much  below  his  worth  and  the  valuable  extraneous 
services  he  rendered  to  the  Government,  simply  because  he  was 

*  In  a  memoir  read  before  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences, 
1873. 


334 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


unwilling  to  accept  the  care  and  responsibility  of  treasure." 
Difficult  problems  relating  to  counterfeiting  and  other  coinage 
matters,  also  various  delicate  and  confidential  commissions,  were 
frequently  intrusted  to  Prof.  Torrey  by  the  head  of  the  Treas- 
ury Department,  the  utmost  reliance  being  placed  upon  his 
skill,  wisdom,  and  probity.  Two  of  these  commissions  took 
him  to  California — once  by  way  of  Panama  and  once  across 
the  continent — and  were  especially  gratifying  to  Dr.  Torrey,  as 
they  enabled  him  to  gather  from  its  native  soil  many  a  plant 
that  he  had  himself  described  and  named  from  the  dried  speci- 
mens of  some  other  collector.  Dr.  Torrey's  chemical  skill 
made  his  advice  sought  for  by  various  industrial  establish- 
ments, among  them  being  the  Manhattan  Gas  Company,  whose 
consulting  chemist  he  was  for  a  number  of  years.  In  his  posi- 
tion as  United  States  assayer  he  was  succeeded  by  his  son, 
Herbert  G.  Torrey. 

This  enumeration  of  his  scientific  labours  would  be  incom-, 
plete  without  reference  to  his  great  work  in  educating  others 
in  science.  In  the  various  professorships  he  held  he  was 
always  to  the  students  a  loved  instructor,  and  many  now  emi- 
nent in  science  can  trace  the  commencement  of  their  careers  to 
the  teachings  of  Dr.  Torrey.  His  greatest  service  in  this  field 
was  in  teaching  Asa  Gray,  who  came  to  him  with  a  letter  of 
introduction  when  nineteen  years  of  age,  was  invited  to  a  cor- 
respondence, and  soon  became  an  assistant  and  associate.  Not 
only  in  the  class-room,  but  out  of  it,  was  his  influence  con- 
stantly exerted,  and  he  was  always  surrounded  by  a  circle  of 
young  men  who  never  came  to  him  in  vain  for  sympathy  and 
encouragement.  He  gave  to  such  what  was  better  than  pecun- 
iary aid,  comfort,  hope,  and  help  in  its  best  sense.  There  is 
many  a  chemist,  now  standing  high  in  his  profession,  who  owes 
much  to  his  kindly  aid,  and  scarcely  a  botanist  in  the  country 
who  has  not  been  a  recipient  of  favours  from  his  ever-open 
hand. 

As  trustee  of  Columbia  College  and  of  Princeton  he  was 
largely  influential  in  giving  scientific  studies  their  proper  prom- 
inence in  these  institutions.  It  was  through  his  influence,  more 
than  to  that  of  any  other  one  person,  that  the  School  of 
Mines  was  established.  He  always  took  the  liveliest  interest 
in  its  progress,  and  its  ultimate  success  was  to  him  a  source  of 
great  gratification. 


JOHN   TORREY.  335 

Dr.  Torrey  was  a  member  of  many  scientific  organizations, 
domestic  and  foreign.  He  had  presided  over  the  American  As- 
sociation for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  and  was  twice,  for 
considerable  periods,  President  of  the  New  York  Lyceum  of 
Natural  History.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  the  sole  distinc- 
tion on  which  he  prided  himself  was  his  membership  in  the  order 
of  the  Cincinnati — which  came  to  him  through  his  father  and 
grandfather.  An  association  formed  by  the  botanists  of  New 
York  and  vicinity,  to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  the  Tor- 
rey Botanical  Club,  grew  rapidly  from  small  beginnings  to  a 
considerable  size.  An  act  of  incorporation  was  obtained  for  it 
in  1871  and  Dr.  Torrey  was  elected  the  first  president  under 
the  charter.  This  election  took  place  when  he  was  too  ill  to 
attend  the  meeting  of  the  club,  and  he  never  assumed  the  office. 

Two  attempts,  by  Sprengel  and  Rafinesque,  to  render  to 
Torrey  the  customary  testimonial  that  a  botanist  receives  from 
his  fellows  having  failed,  it  was  fortunately  possible  to  give  his 
name  to  a  remarkable  ever-green  tree  discovered  in  our  own 
Southern  States.  Three  other  species  have  since  been  found 
respectively  in  California,  Japan,  and  China.  All  four  have 
been  introduced  into  Europe,  and  are  greatly  prized  there  as 
ornamental  trees ;  so  that  all  round  the  world  Torreya  taxi- 
folia ',  Torreya  Calif ornica,  Torreya  nucifera,  and  Torreya  grandis, 
by  their  perpetual  verdure,  give  aid  to  his  own  achievements 
in  keeping  green  the  memory  of  one  of  America's  foremost 
botanists. 

Of  Dr.  Torrey  as  a  man,  aside  from  his  scientific  work,  a 
friend  who  had  known  him  long  and  well  has  remarked :  "  He 
is  the  only  man  I  ever  knew  of  whom  it  could  be  said  he  was 
truly  lovable."  However  distinguished  his  position  as  a  man 
of  science,  there  was  something  beyond  and  beneath  this,  a  per- 
sonal charm  that  was  the  admiration  of  all  his  friends.  A  de- 
voted Christian,  he  never  obtruded  his  Christianity,  but  let  it 
appear  in  his  every  relation  in  life.  Belonging  to  a  denomina- 
tion that  is  by  some  considered  exceedingly  strict,  he  was  most 
charitable  for  the  opinions  of  those  who  believed  differently. 
Knowing  that  all  truths  are  compatible,  he  was  never  dis- 
turbed by  the  results  of  scientific  research,  being  confident,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  they  would  be  found  in  final  agreement 
with  all  that  is  truest  and  best  in  man's  religious  beliefs. 


GEORGE  CATLIN 


GEORGE  CATUN. 


GEORGE  CATLIN.  337 

but  keeping  and  teaching  the  commandments."  In  1797  the 
family  removed  to  Ona-qua-gua  Valley,  Broome  County,  N.  Y., 
travelling  on  horseback  over  an  Indian  trail,  the  baby  George 
being  carried  in  his  mother's  arms.  They  afterward  removed, 
at  different  times,  to  Hop  Bottom,  Montrose,  and  Great 
Bend,  Pa. 

George  was  the  fifth  of  fourteen  children.  Until  he  wds 
about  fifteen  years  old  the  boy  lived  much  with  Nature,  and 
became  an  accomplished  hunter  and  fisherman — occupations 
for  which  he  had  an  inveterate  propensity,  and  from  which  his 
father  and  mother  had  great  difficulty  in  turning  his  attention 
to  books.  By  virtue  of  his  associations  his  mind  and  imagina- 
tion were  filled  with  stories  of  Indians  and  Indian  life.  His 
parents  had  vivid  recollections  of  the  terrible  adventures  in 
which  they  had  participated ;  his  father's  generous  hospitality 
caused  the  place  to  be  frequented  by  Revolutionary  soldiers, 
Indian  fighters,  hunters,  trappers,  and  explorers,  for  whose 
stories  he  had  an  always  ready  ear  ;  even  the  noonday  rests 
in  the  farm  fields  were  enlivened  by  the  relation  of  incidents 
of  the  early  settlement ;  and  the  very  valley  where  he  lived 
had  been  the  rendezvous  of  Brant  and  his  army  during  the 
frontier  war. 

His  early  training,  which  was  that  usual  for  the  sons  of 
persons  of  means  in  the  colonies,  was  carefully  attended  to 
by  his  father  and  his  mother.  In  1817  and  1818  he  attended 
the  law  school  of  Reeves  &  Gould,  at  Litchfield,  Conn.  He 
continued  his  law  studies  in  Pennsylvania,  and  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  the  profession  in  the  courts  of  Luzerne  and  the 
adjoining  counties.  But  during  the  time  of  his  practice,  from 
1820  to  1823,  the  passion  for  painting,  in  which  he  had  already 
in  Connecticut  become  noted  as  an  amateur,  was  getting  the 
advantage  of  him,  and  soon  all  his  love  of  pleading  gave  way 
to  it;  and,  he  says,  "  After  having  covered  nearly  every  inch  of 
the  lawyer's  table  (and  even  encroached  upon  the  judge's 
bench)  with  penknife,  pen  and  ink,  and  pencil  sketches  of 
judges,  juries,  and  culprits,  I  very  deliberately  resolved  to 
convert  my  law  library  into  paint  pots  and  brushes,  and  to 
pursue  painting  as  my  future  and  apparently  more  agreeable 
profession." 

He  settled  in  Philadelphia  in  1823,  and  was  at  once  ad- 
mitted to  the  fraternity  of  artists  there,  which  included  Thomas 


338  PIONEERS   OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

Sully,  John  Nagle,  Charles  Wilson,  and  Rembrandt  Peale.  In 
the  next  year  he  was  admitted  as  an  academician  of  the  Penn- 
sylvania Academy  of  Fine  Arts.  He  was  most  successful  as  a 
miniature  painter  in  water  colours  on  ivory.  Among  his  more 
famous  paintings  were  one  of  Mrs.  Madison  in  a  turban ;  the 
Virginia  Constitutional  Convention  of  1839  ;  the  portrait  of 
De  Witt  Clinton,  which  hangs  in  the  Governor's  Room  of  the 
New  York  City  Hall,  and  of  which  the  Franklin  Institute,  of 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  has  a  copy  from  his  hand  ;  and  portraits  of 
members  of  the  Legislature  and  other  prominent  men  of  New 
York.  While  at  Albany  painting  the  portraits  of  Clinton  and 
others,  Mr.  Catlin  met  Miss  Clara  B.  Gregory,  and  was  mar- 
ried to  her,  May  10,  1828. 

He  visited  New  York,  Buffalo,  Norfolk,  and  other  cities  in 
the  exercise  of  his  art,  and  often  saw  the  delegations  of 
Indians  that  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  Washington  at  that 
period  of  our  history.  While  in  Philadelphia,  he  writes,  his 
mind  was  continually  reaching  for  some  branch  or  enterprise 
of  the  art  "  on  which  to  devote  a  whole  lifetime  of  enthu- 
siasm, ...  a  delegation  of  some  ten  or  fifteen  noble  and 
dignified  looking  Indians  from  the  wilds  of  the  far  West 
suddenly  arrived  in  the  city,  arrayed  and  equipped  in  all  of 
their  classic  beauty,  with  shield  and  helmet,  with  tunic  and 
manteau,  tinted  and  tasselled  off  exactly  for  the  painter's 
palette."  Having  an  eye  for  nature  rather  than  for  the  con- 
ventionalities of  civilization,  he  had  long  been  of  the  opinion 
that  the  wilderness  of  our  country  afforded  models  equal  to 
those  from  which  the  Grecian  sculptors  transferred  inimitable 
grace  and  beauty  to  marble ;  and  a  short  experience  in  the 
woods  among  Indians  confirmed  him  in  this  view.  In  the 
midst  of  his  success  as  a  painter,  he  wrote  in  1861,  "I  again 
resolved  to  use  my  art,  and  so  much  of  the  labours  of  my 
future  life  as  might  be  required,  in  rescuing  from  oblivion  the 
looks  and  customs  of  the  vanishing  races  of  native  man  in 
America,  to  which  I  plainly  saw  they  were  hastening  before 
the  approach  and  certain  progress  of  civilization."  If  he 
should  live  to  accomplish  his  design,  he  thought,  "  the  re- 
sult of  my  labours  will  doubtless  be  interesting  to  future 
eyes,  who  will  have  little  else  left  from  which  to  judge  of 
the  original  inhabitants  of  this  simple  race  of  beings."  So  he 
set  out  alone  unaided  and  unadvised,  to  collect  his  portraits 


GEORGE  CATLIN.  339 

and  illustrations  of  primitive  looks  and  customs,  to  set  them 
up  "  in  a  gallery,  unique  and  imperishable,  for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  future  ages."  He  was  never  even  comfortably  off 
in  money  matters,  says  his  biographer,  Mrs.  Clara  Catlin 
Clarke,  "  relying  for  his  livelihood  upon  his  brush  or  his 
pen.  He  lived  poor  and  died  the  same.  He  received  no 
pecuniary  aid,  governmental  or  individual,  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  work."  He  accomplished  it  with  remarkable  thorough- 
ness. 

He  followed  this  work  for  forty-two  years — from  1829  to 
xgyi — and  during  that  time  travelled  through  the  wildernesses 
of  North  and  South  America,  and  visited  Europe,  making  his 
name  known  everywhere.  During  eight  years,  from  1829  till 
1838,  he  lived  among  the  Indians,  traders,  trappers,  and  hunt- 
ers of  the  West. 

In  1830  and  1831  he  accompanied  Governor  Clark,  Superin- 
tendent of  Indian  Affairs,  to  treaties  held  with  the  Winneba- 
goes  and  Menomonees,  the  Shawnees  and  Sacs  and  Foxes,  and 
in  these  interviews  began  the  series  of  his  Indian  paintings. 
In  1831  he  visited,  with  Governor  Clark,  the  Kansas,  and  re- 
turned to  St.  Louis.  In  1832  he  painted  the  portraits  of  Black 
Hawk  and  his  warriors,  prisoners  of  war.  In  the  same  year,  on 
his  second  journey,  he  ascended  the  Missouri,  by  steamer,  to 
Fort  Union,  mouth  of  the  Yellowstone,  and  returned  to  St. 
Louis  in  a  canoe  with  two  men,  steering  his  frail  craft  the 
whole  distance  of  two  thousand  miles  with  his  own  paddle, 
visiting  and  painting  ten  tribes.  Of  these  tribes  the  most 
important  were  the  Mandans,  to  whom  he  devoted  more  time 
and  labour  than  any  other  in  North  America.  The  red  pipe- 
stone  is  now  classified  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution  as  Catlinite, 
being  considered  his  discovery.  While  on  the  way  to  gather 
specimens  in  1832  he  stopped  at  the  point  where  Chicago  now 
stands,  and  made  a  sketch  of  Fort  Dearborn,  then  one  of 
the  few  landmarks.  The  sketch  is  still  extant.  In  1833  he 
ascended  the  Platte  to  Fort  Laramie,  visiting  villages  of  the 
Pawnees,  Omahas,  and  Otoes,  and  seeing  many  Arapahoes  and 
Cheyennes,  and  rode  to  the  shores  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake, 
while  the  Mormons  were  yet  building  their  temple  at  Nauvoo. 
In  1834  he  accompanied  a  regiment  of  mounted  dragoons  to 
the  Comanches  and  other  Southwestern  tribes,  making  an  ex- 
tensive journey  and  seeing  many  Indians  of  various  tribes; 


340 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


then  from  Fort  Gibson,  Ark.,  on  his  horse  "  Charley,"  without 
a  road  or  a  track,  rode  to  St.  Louis,  a  distance  of  five  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  guided  by  his  pocket  compass,  and  swimming 
the  rivers  as  he  met  them.  In  1835  he  ascended  the  Mississippi 
to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  saw  the  Mississippi  Sioux,  the 
Ojibways  and  Saukees  or  Sacs,  and  descended  the  river  again 
to  St.  Louis  in  a  bark  canoe  with  one  man,  steering  with  his  own 
paddle.  In  1836  he  made  a  second  visit  to  the  Falls  of  St. 
Anthony,  steaming  from  Buffalo  to  Green  Bay,  ascending  the 
Fox  and  descending  the  Wisconsin  Rivers,  six  hundred  miles 
in  a  bark  canoe  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  and  thence  by  canoe  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony.  Thence 
he  ascended  the  St.  Peter's  to  the  "  Pipestone  Quarry  "  on  the 
Coteau  des  Prairies,  and  descended  the  St.  Peter's  in  a  canoe, 
with  a  companion,  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony,  and  from  them 
a  second  time  to  St.  Louis  in  a  bark  canoe,  nine  hundred  miles. 
In  1837  he  went  to  the  coast  of  Florida  to  see  the  Seminoles 
and  Euchees,  and  in  the  same  year  made  a  voyage  from  New 
York  to  Charleston  to  paint  Osceola  and  the  other  Seminole 
chiefs,  then  prisoners  of  war.  The  letters  embodying  the  ob- 
servations made  during  these  journeys — to  which  thirty-eight 
tribes  sat  to  him  for  their  portraits — on  the  tribes  and  country 
furnished  the  text  for  the  book,  Illustrations  of  the  Manners, 
Customs,  and  Condition  of  the  North  American  Indians,  which 
passed  in  England  through  more  than  twenty-five  editions,  and 
of  which  more  than  sixty  thousand  copies  were  sold. 

Mr.  Catlin's  chief  object  on  these  journeys  was  to  observe 
the  Indian  as  a  man,  and  to  perpetuate  the  representation  of 
the  kind  of  a  man  he  was.  He  watched  him  in  every  aspect, 
caught  him  in  every  mood,  studied  him  in  every  relation,  and 
put  him  down,  on  canvas  or  in  his  notes,  as  he  found  him. 
He  enjoyed  and  improved,  to  the  full  extent  of  his  power, 
•opportunities  which  have  occurred  to  few  so  ready  to  make  a 
record  of  them,  and  will  never  occur  again  to  any  one,  of  be- 
coming familiar  with  the  red  man  in  his  natural,  unsophisti- 
cated state,  with  the  intention  of  making  mankind,  as  far  as 
possible,  a  sharer  in  his  privileges. 

Most  of  the  places  he  visited,  the  names  of  many  of  which 
have  become  familiar  to  us,  and  which  now  seem  commonplace, 
were  then  away  out  beyond  the  bounds  of  civilization,  and 
visited  by  the  ordinary  tourist,  if  visited  by  him  at  all,  with 


GEORGE  CATLIN.  34! 

an  apprehension  not  unlike  that  with  which  he  would  now  start 
out  for  Central  Africa.  The  Indians  knew  little  of  the  white 
man,  and  his  inventions  were  strange  and  mysterious  to  them. 
Thus,  the  people  on  the  Yellowstone  had  never  seen  or  heard 
of  a  steamboat,  and  at  some  places  were  at  a  loss  what  to  do 
or  how  to  act  at  the  sight  of  one. 

The  art  of  portrait  painting  was  new  to  the  savages,  and 
the  strange,  whimsical,  and  superstitious  notions  which  they 
conceived  of  Mr.  Catlin's  operations  were  the  source  of  many 
curious  incidents.  The  portraits  produced  great  excitement 
in  the  villages,  with  intense  interest  in  the  personality  of  the 
artist.  The  people  pronounced  him  the  greatest  medicine 
man  in  the  world,  for  he  made  living  beings ;  they  said  "  they 
could  see  their  chiefs  alive  in  two  places ;  those  that  he  had 
made  were  a  little  alive ;  they  could  see  their  eyes  move,  could 
see  them  smile  and  laugh,  and  if  they  could  laugh  they  could 
certainly  speak,  if  they  should  try,  and  they  must  therefore 
have  some  life  in  them."  The  squaws  generally  agreed  that 
"  they  had  discovered  life  enough  in  them  to  render  my  medi- 
cine too  great  for  the  Mandans ;  saying  that  such  an  operation 
could  not  be  performed  without  taking  from  the  original  some- 
thing which  I  put  in  the  picture,  and  they  could  see  it  move, 
could  see  it  stir."  Then  the  cry  went  around  that  the  artist  was 
a  dangerous  man ;  "  one  who  could  make  living  persons  by 
looking  at  them,  and  at  the  same  time  could,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  destroy  life  in  the  same  way,  if  I  chose."  When  a 
movement  was  made  to  expel  him  from  a  village,  and  a  council 
was  held  about  the  matter,  which  sat  for  several  days,  he  got 
admittance  to  their  council,  and  assured  them,  he  says,  "  that 
I  was  but  a  man  like  themselves ;  that  my  art  had  no  medicine 
or  mystery  about  it,  but  could  be  learned  by  any  of  them  if 
they  would  practise  it  as  long  as  I  had  ;  and  that  in  the 
country  where  I  lived  brave  men  never  allowed  their  squaws 
to  frighten  them  with  foolish  whims  and  stories.  They  all 
immediately  arose,  shook  me  by  the  hand,  and  dressed  them- 
selves for  their  pictures.  After  this  there  was  no  further  diffi- 
culty about  sitting — all  were  ready  to  be  painted ;  the  squaws 
were  silent,  and  my  painting  room  a  continual  resort  for  the 
chiefs  and  medicine  men."  But  Mr.  Catlin  always  noticed  that, 
when  a  picture  was  going  on,  the  braves  who  were  assisting 
kept  passing  the  pipe  around,  smoking  for  the  success  of  the 


242  PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

picture  and  the  preservation  of  the  sitter.  Then  he  was  feasted, 
a  doctor's  rattle  was  presented  to  him,  and  a  magical  wand,  or 
doctor's  staff,  "  strung  with  claws  of  the  grizzly  bear,  with 
hoofs  of  the  antelope,  with  ermine,  with  wild  sage  and  bats' 
wings — and  perfumed  with  the  choice  and  savoury  odour  of  the 
polecat ;  a  dog  was  sacrificed  and  hung  by  the  legs  over  my 
wigwam,  and  I  was  therefore  and  thereby  initiated  into  the 
arcana  of'medicine  or  mystery." 

Mr.  Catlin  was  called  by  the  Iowa  Indians  Chip-pe-ho-la  ;  by 
the  Mandans,  Te-ho-pe-nee  Wash-ee,  or  Great  Medicine  White 
Man  ;  and  by  the  Sioux  at  Fort  Pierre,  Ee-cha-zoo-kah-ga-wa-kou, 
the  Medicine  Painter,  and  also  We-chash-a-wa-kou,  the  Painter. 
Associating  with  the  Indians  almost  constantly,  and  seeing 
their  best  side,  Mr.  Catlin's  sympathies  were  wholly  enlisted 
for  them ;  and  we  find  much  in  his  observations  appreciative 
of  their  character  and  revealing  an  anxious  interest  in  their 
future.  He  often  speaks  as  one  who  felt  that  a  doom  of  ex- 
termination which  they  did  not  deserve  had  been  pronounced 
against  them.  He  wrote  an  "  Indian  creed  "  in  1868,  pertinent- 
ly to  his  being  called  the  "  Indian-loving  Catlin,"  in  which  he 
described  those  people  as  having  always  loved  him  and  made 
him  welcome  to  the  best  they  had ;  as  being  honest  without 
laws,  having  no  jails  or  poorhouses,  keeping  the  command- 
ments without  ever  having  read  them  or  heard  them  preached 
from  the  pulpit,  having  never  taken  the  name  of  God  in  vain, 
loving  their  neighbours  as  themselves,  worshipping  God  without 
a  Bible  and  believing  that  God  loved  them  also,  and — "  I  love 
all  people  who  do  the  best  they  can,  and  oh,  how  I  love  a  peo- 
ple who  don't  live  for  the  love  of  money ! "  He  asserted,  in 
his  North  American  Indians,  that  the  Indian  "  is  everywhere, 
in  his  native  state,  a  highly  moral  and  religious  being,  endowed 
by  his  Maker  with  an  intuitive  knowledge  of  some  great 
author  of  his  being  and  the  universe ;  in  dread  of  whose  dis- 
pleasure he  constantly  lives,  with  the  apprehension  before  him 
of  a  future  state,  where  he  expects  to  be  rewarded  or  punished, 
according  to  the  merits  he  has  gained  or  forfeited  in  this 
world."  He  found  him  the  worshipper  of  a  spiritual  God,  with 
no  idolatry.  He  discerned  the  evil  of  allowing  traders  to  go 
among  the  Indians  to  corrupt  them,  and  thought  that,  if  they 
were  obliged  to  come  to  the  settlements  to  do  their  trading, 
they  would  enjoy  the  advantages  of  competition,  and  see  the 


GEORGE   CATLIN. 


343 


better  features  of  our  civilization.  His  theories  respecting  the 
origin  of  the  Indians  do  not  seem  to  have  taken  settled  shape. 
He  believed  that  the  primary  race  did  not  come  here  from 
abroad,  but  originated  here  on  the  soil  independently  of  other 
races,  although  wanderers  from  other  lands  may  have  mingled 
with  it.  He  found  reasons  for  supposing  that  there  may  have 
been  a  Jewish  element  in  the  race,  but  not  that  the  race  was 
derived  from  the  Jews ;  and  he  speculated  upon  the  possible 
derivation  of  the  Mandans  from  a  Welsh  colony  under  Prince 
Madoc  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  century.  There  are 
not  many  scientific  observations  in  his  itineraries.  His  journal 
at  Fort  Gibson,  in  1834,  contains  a  notice  of  the  death  of  Mr. 
Beyrich,  a  Prussian  botanist,  who  had  made  an  immense  collec- 
tion of  plants,  and  died  at  Fort  Gibson  while  engaged  in  chang- 
ing and  drying  them. 

Mr.  Catlin  supported  himself  in  his  journeys  by  painting 
portraits  and  by  the  sale  of  his  books.  It  was  his  custom  to 
leave  the  Indian  country  in  the  fall  and  go  in  his  canoe  down 
to  St.  Louis  or  New  Orleans.  There  he  would  select  some 
place  promising  good  custom  and  settle  himself  as  a  portrait 
painter  for  the  winter.  His  collections  having  become  large 
enough  to  form  a  gallery  and  museum,  he  exhibited  them  in 
the  chief  Eastern  cities  from  1837  to  1839.  He  then  offered 
them  for  sale  to  the  Government,  and  their  purchase  was  advo- 
cated in  Congress  by  such  men  as  Clay  and  Webster.  But  the 
bill  making  the  appropriation  was  lost,  the  casting  vote  being 
given  by  Jefferson  Davis,  then  in  the  House.  Bitterly  disap- 
pointed at  the  want  of  appreciation  of  his  work  by  his  own 
country,  Mr.  Catlin  then  took  his  collections  to  Europe,  and 
exhibited  them  in  London  and  Paris.  He  gave  his  exhibi- 
tion and  lectured  upon  the  Indians,  with  the  aid  of  men  and 
boys  in  costume,  for  three  years  in  succession,  in  London. 
Then  in  order  to  help  a  stranded  party  of  nine  Chippewas  that 
a  Canadian  had  been  exploiting  in  England  he  associated  them 
with  his  exhibition  for  several  months.  A  party  of  lowas, 
among  them  being  several  whose  portraits  he  had  painted, 
and  still  another  party  of  Chippewas  enjoyed  his  protection 
under  similar  circumstances  in  London  and  Paris.  Mr.  Catlin 
never  took  any  Indians  abroad  for  exhibition  himself,  and  was 
very  indignant  that  any  one  should  speculate  with  them  in  this 
way.  The  support  of  those  who  came  under  his  care  fell 


344  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

largely  on  him ;  many  died  on  his  hands ;  some  were  buried 
from  his  own  house ;  and  their  expenses  and  the  responsibilities 
of  their  affairs  forced  upon  him,  helped  to  bring  on  his  finan- 
cial ruin.  Richly  he  repaid  the  hospitalities  that  the  Indian 
at  home  had  extended  to  him. 

Mrs.  Catlin  accompanied  her  husband  on  his  expeditions  of 
1834  and  the  three  following  years,  and  aided  him  enthusi- 
astically in  his  researches  and  work.  She  joined  him  with  two 
of  their  children  in  London  in  1840,  was  with  him  during  his 
English  travels,  and  proceeded  with  him  to  Paris,  where  she 
died  in  1845.  She  had  borne  him  three  daughters,  Elizabeth 
Wing,  Clara  Gregory,  and  Louise  Victoria ;  also  a  son,  George, 
who  died  at  the  age  of  three  years. 

His  visit  to  France,  from  1845  to  1848,  led  to  pecuniary 
disaster,  and  was  saddened  by  the  loss  of  his  wife  and  son ; 
and  in  1852  he  suffered  a  financial  wreck  in  London,  from 
which  he  never  recovered.  His  collection  was  seized  for  debt, 
but  Mr.  Joseph  Harrison,  Jr.,  of  Philadelphia,  advanced  the 
funds  necessary  to  release  it,  and  took  it  as  security  himself. 
It  was  brought  back  to  this  country  and  stored  until  1879, 
when  so  much  of  it  as  had  escaped  the  ravages  of  time  was  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Harrison's  widow  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 

Mr.  Catlin  then  started  anew.  Between  1852  and  1857  he 
made  three  voyages  from  Paris  to  South  and  Central  America. 
He  found  great  difficulty  in  getting  the  Indians  of  the  Amazon 
to  sit  for  their  pictures,  but  by  catching  them  unawares  and 
sketching  from  his  boat  while  they  were  detained  on  the  shore 
by  some  pretext  of  entertainment,  he  was  able  to  make  sketches 
among  thirty  different  tribes,  on  the  Amazon,  the  Uruguay,  the 
Yucayali,  and  in  the  open  air  of  the  pampas  and  llanos,  con- 
taining many  thousand  people,  in  their  canoes,  at  their  fishing 
occupations,  and  in  groups  on  the  river's  shore.  These  voy- 
ages had  also  another  object,  having  been  suggested  by  his 
friend  von  Humboldt,  who  wished  him  to  pursue  some  of  the 
questions  relative  to  the  origin  of  the  Gulf  Stream  which  the 
great  geographer  was  then  too  old  to  investigate  personally. 

After  he  returned  from  his  South  American  campaigns,  Mr. 
Catlin  lived  in  Brussels  for  about  ten  years  upon  the  proceeds 
of  his  brush,  and  working  at  the  same  time  upon  a  new  gallery 
of  paintings  to  be  known  as  his  "cartoon  collection."  This 
was  not  a  replica  of  the  other  collection.  Instead  of  being 


GEORGE  CATLIN.  345 

portraits  the  pictures  consist  of  costumes  in  groups,  hunting 
scenes,  views  illustrating  customs,  etc.  A  price  was  offered 
for  this  in  Europe,  but  Mr.  Catlin,  always  loyal  to  his  country, 
thought  he  could  join  it  to  the  collection  still  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Harrison  and  sell  both  to  the  Government.  Subsequent  to 
his  death  this  was  attempted  by  his  daughters.  Frelinghuysen 
introduced  the  bill ;  Prof.  Joseph  Henry  spoke  before  the  Sen- 
ate Library  Committee  in  its  favour ;  it  was  backed  by  letters 
from  all  the  college  faculties  of  the  United  States,  but  again 
the  motion  was  lost,  and  the  cartoon  collection  still  remains  in 
the  possession  of  his  daughters.  In  1871,  after  an  absence  of 
thirty-two  years,  he  returned  to  the  United  States,  and  exhibited 
his  cartoon  collection  in  New  York  and  Washington  until  his 
death.  Mr.  Catlin's  last  illness  was  contracted  from  an  expos- 
ure which  he  suffered  in  Washington,  in  October,  1872.  He 
was  removed  thence  to  Jersey  City,  where  his  daughters  and 
his  brother-in-law,  the  Hon.  Dudley  S.  Gregory,  were  living, 
and  died  there  in  December. 

The  George  Catlin  Indian  Gallery  of  the  United  States  Na- 
tional Museum  consists  of  his  first  collection  of  pictures  and 
other  articles  given  to  the  Smithsonian  Institution  by  Mrs. 
Harrison,  as  above  stated.  A  full  description  of  this  collection, 
with  notes  and  statistics,  a  memoir  of  Catlin,  extracts  from 
his  works,  and  other  related  matter,  was  prepared  by  Mr. 
Thomas  Donaldson  and  published  in  the  Smithsonian  Report 
for  1885.  This  description,  upon  which  the  present  account  is 
based,  occupies  947  pages  and  is  illustrated  with  144  plates, 
most  of  which  are  engravings  from  Catlin's  paintings.  In  his 
pictorial  work  he  sought  to  represent  the  truth,  and  invented 
nothing.  He  regarded  the  domestic  and  everyday  customs, 
habits,  and  manners  of  the  Indians  as  the  essentials  to  the 
proper  study  of  their  origin  and  descent,  and  aimed  to  repro- 
duce them  thoroughly.  His  principal  book  was  Letters  and 
Notes  on  the  Manners,  Customs,  and  Condition  of  the  North 
American  Indians ;  written  during  eight  years  of  travel  among 
the  wildest  tribes  of  Indians  in  North  America,  first  published 
in  1841,  and  reproduced  in  several  editions,  in  English  and 
German,  with  divers  variations  of  title.  He  wrote  also  Cat- 
lin's Notes  in  Europe,  two  volumes;  Life  amongst  the  Indians, 
a  book  for  youth,  1867,  which  was  translated  into  French. 
The  list  also  includes  works  on  the  O-kee-pa,  a  religious  cere- 
23 


346  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

mony  of  the  Mandans ;  catalogues  of  his  gallery  ;  a  pamphlet 
on  breathing,  entitled  Shut  your  Mouth,  giving  the  results  of 
observations  made  during  his  life  among  the  Indians,  1865  ;  a 
pamphlet  concerning  a  Steam  Raft  suggested  as  a  Means  of 
Security  to  Human  Life  on  the  Ocean,  1850;  Last  Rambles 
amongst  the  Indians  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Andes, 
1868  ;  The  Lifted  and  Subsided  Rocks  of  America,  with  their 
Influence  on  the  Oceanic,  Atmospheric,  and  Land  Currents, 
and  the  Distribution  of  Races,  1870  ;  a  Letter  to  William  Black- 
man,  concerning  his  life  among  the  aboriginal  races  of  Amer- 
ica ;  and  newspaper,  review,  and  magazine  notes  and  articles. 

He  put  forward  in  1832  a  suggestion  for  forming  a  large 
reservation  of  public  lands  to  be  a  nation's  park,  containing 
man  and  beast  in  all  the  wildness  and  freshness  of  their  nat- 
ural beauty,  saying  that  he  would  want  no  better  monument 
than  the  reputation  of  having  been  the  founder  of  such  an  in- 
stitution. More  than  this:  He  was  the  man  who  picked  out 
the  Yellowstone  region  for  a  park,  and  it  is  time  that  the  credit 
of  the  Yellowstone  Park  should  be  given  to  George  Catlin  and 
some  part  of  it  named  after  him.  In  1845  he  published  a  plan 
for  disengaging  and  floating  quarterdecks  on  steamers  and 
other  vessels  for  the  purpose  of  saving  human  lives  at  sea,  and 
proceeded  to  take  out  a  patent  for  it,  but  found  afterward  that 
he  had  been  anticipated.  In  1842  he  was  invited  to  lecture  at 
the  Royal  Institution  in  London,  and  took  advantage  of  the 
occasion  to  introduce  a  subject  on  which  he  had  long  medi- 
tated— that  of  forming  a  museum  to  contain  and  perpetuate  the 
looks  and  manners  and  history  of  all  the  declining  and  vanish- 
ing races  of  mankind. 

Attention  may  properly  be  called  to  the  extraordinary 
energy  and  industry  of  this  man,  who  produced  over  twelve 
hundred  oil  paintings,  besides  endless  numbers  of  etchings,  pen- 
and-ink  drawings,  manugraphs  of  his  own  works  resembling 
the  perfection  of  the  ancient  manuscripts,  miniatures,  etc.,  and 
at  the  same  time  travelled  and  wrote  and  left  few  subjects  un- 
examined.  His  conversational  abilities  were  sought  for  at  the 
best  houses  in  London.  At  seventy-six  he  retained  his  natural 
sight,  his  own  teeth,  his  uprightness  of  carriage,  and  could 
walk  for  miles  without  fatigue. 


EBENEZER   EMMONS. 


EBENEZER  EMMONS. 
1799-1863. 

AUTHORITIES  differ  as  to  the  year  in  which  Ebenezer  Em- 
mons  was  born.  The  first  General  Catalogue  of  Williams 
College,  published  in  1880,  puts  "  cet.  65"  after  the  year  of  his 
death.  In  Durfee's  Williams  Biographical  Annals  the  year  of 
his  birth  is  given  as  1799,  while,  according  to  Prof.  Jules 
Marcou,  in  Science,  Prof.  Emmons  always  stated  to  his  chil- 
dren that  he  was  born  in  1800.  His  sister  has  informed  the 
writer  that  1799  is  the  correct  year.  The  month  and  day  were 
May  i6th,  and  the  place  was  Middlefield,  Mass.  He  was  an 
only  son,  but  had  two  sisters  older  and  two  younger  than  he. 
Prof.  Emmons's  father,  who  also  bore  the  name  of  Ebenezer, 
was  a  farmer.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Mary  Mack. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Nathaniel  Emmons,  who  was  quite  a  noted 
preacher  in  his  day,  was  an  uncle.  The  first  ancestor  in 
America  of  this  branch  of  the  family  came  from  England, 
and  settled  at  East  Haddam  on  the  Connecticut  River.  A 
brother  who  came  with  him  settled  in  Boston. 

Young  Eben's  interest  in  nature  appeared  at  an  early  age. 
The  doors  in  his  room  were  covered  with  bugs  and  butterflies 
pinned  on  when  he  was  a  small  boy.  His  mother  often  used 
to  say :  "  Eb,  why  do  you  always  have  your  pockets  filled  with 
stones  ?  I  have  to  mend  them  every  week."  His  birthplace 
and  the  adjoining  town  of  Chester  were  noted  for  rare  min- 
erals. When  he  came  home  for  a  vacation  from  school  or 
college  he  generally  brought  some  fellow-student  with  him. 
He  and  his  friend  would  set  off  for  the  mineral  localities  and 
be  gone  all  day,  coming  back  tired  and  hungry,  but  were 
always  ready  to  go  again  the  next  morning. 

He  was  fitted  for  college  under  the  instruction  of  the  Rev. 
Moses  Halleck,  of  Plainfield,  Mass.,  a  well  known  educator  of 

847 


348  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

his  time,  and  was  graduated  from  Williams  College  in  due 
course.  Prof.  Marcou  gives  1820  as  the  year  of  his  gradua- 
tion, but  the  General  Catalogue  has  him  in  the  class  of  1818, 
which  seems  to  be  conclusive.  As  a  college  student  his  in- 
terest in  the  sciences  was  quickened  by  the  instruction  of  Pro- 
fessors Amos  Eaton  and  Chester  Dewey,  and  he  subsequently 
had  a  large  share  in  introducing  the  study  of  these  subjects 
among  the  young  men  of  the  country.  After  completing  his 
college  course  Mr.  Emmons  continued  his  favourite  studies  at 
the  Rensselaer  School,  graduating  there  with  the  class  of  1826. 
In  the  same  year  he  published  his  Manual  of  Mineralogy  and 
Geology  for  the  use  of  the  students  of  that  institution.  He 
also  studied  medicine  at  the  Berkshire  Medical  School,  and 
established  himself  as  a  practising  physician  in  Chester, 
Mass. 

In  1818,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  Mr.  Emmons  married  Miss 
Maria  Cone,  of  Williamstown,  and  at  the  age  of  thirty-seven 
became  a  grandfather  by  the  birth  of  a  son  to  his  eldest 
daughter. 

In  1828  Dr.  Emmons  removed  to  Williamstown,  where  he 
continued  to  practise  medicine,  and  in  the  same  year  was  ap- 
pointed lecturer  on  chemistry  in  Williams  College.  A  cabinet 
of  mineralogical  and  geological  specimens  which  he  began  to 
collect  here  was  presented  by  him  to  the  college  after  it  had 
received  the  valuable  accretions  of  twenty  years.  He  resided 
in  Williamstown  until  1838,  becoming  the  most  eminent  prac- 
titioner in  Berkshire  County.  In  1830  he  was  appointed  junior 
professor  in  the  Rensselaer  School  and  held  the  position  till 
1839.  He  was  also  a  lecturer  in  the  Medical  School  of 
Castleton  in  the  days  of  its  renown.  His  chair  in  Williams 
College  was  enlarged  in  1833*  to  a  professorship  of  Natu- 
ral History,  which  he  held  till  1859,  when  the  department 
was  divided,  he  retaining  the  mineralogy  and  geology  till  his 
death. 

Having  been  appointed  upon  the  Geological  Survey  of  New 
York  in  1836  and  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Albany  Medical 
College  in  1838,  Dr.  Emmons  removed  in  the  latter  year  to  Al- 

*  The  History  of  Williams  College,  another  book  by  the  Rev.  Calvin  Dur- 
fee,  D.  D.,  above  quoted,  gives  1848  as  the  year  of  his  election  to  the  professor- 
ship of  Natural  History. 


EBENEZER   EMMONS.  249 

bany.  He  was  afterward  transferred  to  the  professorship  of  Ob- 
stetrics, and  remained  on  the  faculty  of  the  Medical  College  till 
1852.  During  this  period  he  used  to  go  to  Williamstown  each 
year  to  deliver  the  course  of  lectures  belonging  to  his  professor- 
ship there.  His  position  on  the  New  York  survey  enabled  him 
to  make  the  valuable  present  of  a  suite  of  the  minerals  of  that 
State  to  his  alma  mater  in  1842.  One  of  his  Williams  College 
students — now  himself  a  venerable  though  young-hearted  pro- 
fessor— well  remembers  the  strong  face  and  beetling  brows  of 
Dr.  Emmons,  and  his  manner  of  giving  instruction.  His  dis- 
position was  kindly.  Being  a  non-resident,  not  much  was  seen 
of  him  by  the  students ;  he  would  appear  at  the  lecture  room, 
give  his  lecture,  and  disappear.  There  was  not  much  of  the 
pedagogue  about  him.  Students  who  had  a  special  liking 
and  capacity  for  his  subject  profited  much  from  his  instruction ; 
but  his  enthusiasm  in  telling  the  wonders  of  the  rocks  carried 
him  along  at  a  rate  which  left  the  indifferent  student  far  be- 
hind. If  only  a  fraction  of  his  class  appeared  at  the  lecture,  or 
if  he  projected  a  question  at  Brown  and  a  response  came  from 
Jones  or  Robinson,  he  seemed  not  to  notice  the  difference. 
Williamstown  is  in  the  heart  of  the  Berkshire  Hills.  One  of 
the  summits  of  East  Mountain,  a  neighbouring  eminence,  is 
the  only  place  in  that  region  where  gneiss  crops  out,  and  here 
Prof.  Emmons  used  to  bring  his  students  to  display  to  them  as 
best  he  could  the  relations  of  his  much  disputed  Taconic  Sys- 
tem to  the  other  and  then  better  known  geological  formations. 
Very  likely  only  a  couple  of  the  class  would  reach  the  summit 
with  him,  yet  he  would  discourse  just  as  earnestly  to  these  as 
to  the  whole  party  that  set  out  with  him.  This  height,  says 
Prof.  Arthur  L.  Perry,  in  his  Origins  in  Williamstown,  "  has 
been  justly  designated  Mount  Emmons,  by  one  who  was  once 
a  pupil  and  later  a  colleague  and  always  an  admirer  of  the 
distinguished  Professor  of  Natural  History  in  the  college,  Ebe- 
nezer  Emmons." 

It  is  related  of  Prof.  Emmons,  as  illustrating  his  enthusi- 
asm, that  once  when  on  a  journey  with  President  Hopkins,  of 
Williams,  and  the  president's  brother,  he  asked  his  friends  to 
turn  aside  with  him  to  visit  a  certain  cave.  They  consented 
to  the  delay,  although  the  brother  was  on  his  way  to  be  mar- 
ried, and  waited  just  within  the  entrance  of  the  cavern  while 
Emmons  penetrated  to  its  inmost  depths.  After  a  time  they 


35O  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

heard  the  excited  cry,  "  I've  got  it !  I've  got  it ! "  and  out 
rushed  the  geologist,  bearing  triumphantly  a  muddy  fragment 
of  rock.  He  had  secured  a  piece  of  evidence  in  support  of  his 
Taconic  System. 

In  1836  a  law  was  passed  providing  for  a  geological  survey 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  in  the  organization  of  the  staff 
for  carrying  on  that  work  Dr.  Emmons  was  appointed  by  Gov- 
ernor Marcy  to  the  charge  of  the  second  district,  which  in- 
cluded the  northeastern  counties  of  the  State.  This  district 
was  chosen  by  Dr.  Emmons  as  a  field  more  especially  interest- 
ing to  him  on  account  of  its  mineral  localities  and  minerals, 
and  giving  him  a  field  more  congenial  to  his  tastes  and  ex- 
perience. He  made  the  public  acquainted  with  the  Adiron- 
dack region  and  named  its  principal  mountains.  In  1837  he 
named,  described,  and  classified  the  celebrated  Potsdam  sand- 
stone. Among  the  other  rocks  and  divisions  to  which  he  gave 
a  name  or  a  place  in  geology  are  the  Chazy  limestone,  black 
marble  of  Isle  la  Motte,  Lorrain  shales,  Champlain  group, 
Ontario  group,  Helderberg  series,  and  Erie  group.  Dur- 
ing the  progress  of  this  survey,  also,  he  made  the  impor- 
tant discovery  that  is  most  closely  associated  with  his 
name.  In  1842  he  pointed  out  a  great  system  of  stratified 
rocks  under  the  Potsdam,  which  he  called  the  Taconic 
System.  This  announcement  brought  upon  him  a  storm  of 
contradiction  and  ridicule,  and  for  a  time  he  was  scien- 
tifically ostracized.  Subsequent  discoveries  by  the  Canada 
survey,  and  by  Barrande,  in  Bohemia,  however,  as  well 
as  the  investigations  of  later  eminent  geologists,  have 
completely  sustained  him.  In  propounding  the  term  Ta- 
conic* System  Prof.  Emmons  was  following  the  instruc- 
tion and  views  of  his  teacher,  Prof.  Amos  Eaton,  who  promul- 
gated his  opinions  regarding  the  age  of  these  rocks  in  his 
lectures  at  Williams  College  from  1817  onward;  and  subse- 
quently in  his  lectures  at  the  Rensselaer  School  to  the  end  of 
his  life,  although  never  having  published  any  satisfactory  ac- 
count of  the  relations  of  these  rocks  to  the  formations  above  or 
below  them. 

Two  years  later  Dr.  Emmons  described  the  primordial 
fauna,  thus  preceding  the  celebrated  discoveries  of  Barrande, 

*  From  the  Taghkanic  Mountains. 


EBENEZER   EMMONS.  35! 

who  recognised  the  priority  of  Emmons  in  the  following  courte- 
ous language : 

"  In  comparing  these  dates  it  is  clear  that  Dr.  Emmons 
was  the  first  to  announce  the  existence  of  a  fauna  anterior  to 
that  which  had  been  established  in  the  Silurian  System  as 
characterizing  the  Lower  Silurian  Division,  and  which  I  have 
named  the  Second  Fauna.  It  is,  then,  just  to  recognise  the 
priority,  and  I  think  it  all  the  more  fitting  to  state  it  at  this 
time,  that  it  has  not  hitherto  been  claimed." 

Prof.  Emmons's  Report  on  the  Second  District  of  the  New 
York  Geological  Survey  was  published  in  1842.  In  the  autumn 
of  that  year  his  colleagues  presented  his  name  to  Governor 
Seward  as  a  proper  person  to  act  as  custodian  of  the  collections 
of  the  geological  survey,  then  arranged,  and  in  progress  of 
arrangement,  in  the  old  State  Hall  on  State  Street,  which  build- 
ing had  been  assigned  for  that  purpose  by  the  Legislature  of 
1840.  He  was  appointed  to  this  position  by  Governor  Seward 
and  assumed  charge  of  the  collections  the  latter  part  of  1842. 
On  the  same  occasion  on  which  this  recommendation  was  made 
it  was  also  recommended  by  the  staff  that  the  work  in  agricul- 
ture and  in  paleontology  which  had  been  left  unfinished  should 
be  assigned  to  Dr.  Emmons  and  Prof.  Hall. 

In  the  spring  of  1843  Governor  Bouck  directed  Dr.  Emmons 
to  investigate  the  agricultural  resources  of  the  State;  and  the 
paleontology  was  placed  under  the  charge  of  Prof.  Hall,  while 
Dr.  Emmons  still  retained  his  position  as  custodian  of  the  col- 
lections of  the  survey  until  1845.  The  five  volumes  of  his  re- 
port on  the  Agriculture  of  New  York  appeared  in  1846,  1849, 
1851,  and  1854.  The  first  was  devoted  to  a  "topographical 
sketch  of  the  State,  climate,  and  temperature;  agricultural 
geology,  the  Taconic  System,  and  the  soils  of  New  York  " ;  the 
second  to  analyses  of  grains  and  other  vegetable  products; 
the  third  and  fourth,  one  consisting  of  text,  the  other  of  plates, 
to  cultivated  fruits;  and  the  fifth  to  injurious  insects.  This 
fifth  volume  has  been  severely  criticised,  but  it  should  be  re- 
membered that  the  writer  to  whom  its  preparation  was  in- 
trusted not  being  versed  in  entomology,  could  only  compile 
from  the  best  sources  at  his  command,  at  a  time  when  the  sci- 
ence was  in  its  infancy  and  comparatively  little  was  known  of 
the  insects  of  the  State.  The  many  illustrations,  which  are 
well  coloured  in  the  larger  portion  of  the  edition,  were  mainly 


352  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

drawn  from  nature,  and  in  some  of  the  orders,  as  in  Coleoptera 
and  Hemiptera,  have  a  degree  of  excellence  which  is  rarely  sur- 
passed even  at  the  present  day.  ; 

About  the  time  the  third  volume  came  from  the  press  he 
was  appointed  State  geologist  of  North  Carolina.  In  his  new 
field  he  made  further  important  contributions  to  the  advance 
of  American  geology.  In  the  coal  measures  of  the  Deep  and 
Dan  rivers  he  discovered  a  grand  Triassic  flora,  and  a  fauna 
that  included  among  many  ancient  vertebrates  the  Droma- 
therium  sylvestre,  the  oldest  mammal  yet  found  anywhere  in 
the  world.  His  description  of  the  new  red  sandstone  flora  of 
North  Carolina  proved  so  valuable  that  twenty  years  after  his 
death  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  reproduced  all  the 
plates  and  descriptions  given  by  him  in  the  sixth  part  of  his 
American  Geology.  Three  volumes  of  North  Carolina  reports 
were  published  by  him.  One  on  the  Geology  of  the  Midland 
Counties  was  issued  in  1856;  a  volume  devoted  to  the  Agri- 
culture of  the  Eastern  Counties,  with  descriptions  of  the  fossils 
of  the  marl  beds,  in  1858;  and  a  second  part  of  his  report  on 
the  agriculture  of  the  State,  "  containing  a  statement  of  the 
principles  of  the  science  upon  which  the  practices  of  agricul- 
ture as  an  art  are  founded,"  appeared  in  1860.  The  Civil  War 
interrupted  his  labours.  The  anxieties  and  separation  from 
friends  occasioned  by  it  probably  hastened  his  death,  which 
took  place  at  his  residence  in  Brunswick  County,  N.  C, 
October  i,  1863.  His  wife,  a  son,  and  two  daughters,  sur- 
vived him. 

Besides  the  works  already  mentioned,  Prof.  Emmons  pub- 
lished an  account  of  the  Taconic  System  (Albany,  1844).  Hav- 
ing been  commissioned  by  Governor  Edward  Everett  to  report 
upon  the  Zoology  of  Massachusetts,  he  prepared  a  volume, 
devoted  to  the  quadrupeds,  which  was  printed  at  Cambridge 
in  1840.  His  American  Geology,  which  appeared  in  1855,  was 
supplemented  by  a  Manual  of  Geology  in  1859. 

A  clear-sighted  and  energetic  worker,  Dr.  Emmons  was  a 
living  force  for  the  advancement  of  his  chosen  science.  The 
Rev.  Mark  Hopkins,  President  of  Williams  College  from  1836 
to  1872,  said  of  him:  "Emmons  was  a  man  of  remarkable 
power  and  great  accuracy  of  observation.  He  seemed  to  have 
an  intuitive  perception  of  the  differences  in  natural  objects. 
He  possessed  an  intense  enthusiasm  in  his  work,  but  in  his 


EBENEZER   EMMONS. 

manner  was  remarkably  quiet.  I  have  never  seen  the  two 
things  combined  to  the  same  extent.  His  perseverance 
knew  no  limit.  It  ought  to  be  added,  that,  in  connection 
with  his  science,  he  was  deeply  religious.  Williams  College 
is  greatly  indebted  to  him  for  its  collections  in  natural 
history." 


JOSEPH  HENRY. 

1799-1878. 

THE  popular  mind  often  fails  to  distinguish  between  the 
scientist  and  the  inventor — between  one  who  discovers  new 
truths  and  one  who  applies  truths  already  known  to  a  useful 
purpose.  Sometimes  the  two  functions  are  united  in  the  same 
person,  but  more  often  he  who  is  intent  on  enlarging  the  bounds 
of  knowledge  feels  that  he  has  no  time  for  tilling  the  field  that 
he  has  won.  On  the  other  hand  a  chance  to  make  a  rough  way 
smooth  or  to  save  a  waste  of  energy  or  material,  is  what  appeals 
most  strongly  to  the  mind  of  the  inventor.  While  the  inven- 
tor, like  Atlas,  takes  the  world  upon  his  shoulders,  it  is  the  dis- 
coverer who  furnishes  a  support  for  Atlas.  The  subject  of  the 
present  sketch  belonged  to  the  latter  class. 

Joseph  Henry  was  born  in  Albany,  N.  Y.  There  is  good 
authority  for  Dec.  17,  1799,  as  the  date,  but  owing  to  the  entry 
in  the  family  Bible  not  being  distinct,  the  year  is  sometimes 
given  as  1797.  One  of  his  daughters  writes  "  I  have  always 
thought  he  numbered  his  years  with  those  of  the  century," 
meaning  that  he  was  born  in  1800,  but  her  impression  is  not  in- 
consistent with  the  date  here  adopted.  His  grandparents  on 
both  sides  came  from  Scotland  in  the  same  vessel,  reaching 
America  on  June  16,  1775.  His  mother's  family,  whose  name 
was  Alexander,  settled  in  Saratoga  County,  while  the  Henrys, 
whose  name  had  been  Hendrie,  took  up  their  abode  in  Scot- 
land, in  Delaware  County,  N.  Y.  When  Joseph  was  seven  years 
old  he  was  sent,  for  what  reason  is  not  known,  to  live  with  his 
grandmother  Alexander  at  Galway,  Saratoga  County,  where  he 
attended  the  village  school.  Of  William  Henry,  his  father,  little 
is  known.  He  died  when  Joseph  was  eight  or  nine  years  of  age. 
When  he  was  ten  years  old  Joseph  was  put  to  work  in  the  store 
kept  by  a  Mr.  Broderick  at  Galway,  but  having  his  afternoons  to 
attend  school.  He  showed  no  marked  fondness  for  books  until 

354 


-Eufcf  Irr  S.Hollyei 


I).  Appletoii  8c  Co. 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  355 

one  day,  in  chasing  a  runaway  rabbit,  he  crawled  through  the 
broken  foundation  wall  of  the  village  church,  and  then,  at- 
tracted by  a  glimmer  of  light,  made  his  way  up  into  the  vesti- 
bule of  the  building.  Here  stood  a  bookcase  containing  the 
village  library.  The  boy  took  down  a  volume,  which  happened 
to  be  Brooks's  Fool  of  Quality,  a  novel  with  a  moral  purpose, 
and  soon  became  deeply  interested  in  the  story.  He  afterward 
spoke  of  this  as  the  first  book  he  ever  opened  voluntarily.  Re- 
turning again  and  again  by  the  underground  passage,  young 
Joseph  regaled  himself  at  will  upon  the  fiction  in  the  library. 
After  a  time  access  to  the  books  in  the  legitimate  way  was  pro- 
cured for  him  by  Mr.  Broderick,  who  seems  to  have  been  a 
kind  employer. 

When  about  fourteen  years  of  age  young  Henry  returned  to 
his  mother's  house  in  Albany.     As  at  this  time  he  manifested 
little    inclination    for   learning,    temporary    employment  was 
found  for  him  by  his  uncle  with  a  silversmith,  but  this  arrange- 
ment soon  came  to  an  end  by  the  failure  of  his  employer.     He 
now  developed  a  great  fondness  for  the  theatre.     Besides  see- 
ing all  the  plays  he  could,  he  obtained  entrance  behind  the 
scenes  and  learned   the  methods  of  producing  stage  effects. 
Joining  a  society  for  debating  and  amateur  theatricals,  called 
the  Rostrum,  he  soon  distinguished  himself  by  his  ingenuity 
in  stage  management,  and  became  president  of  the  society. 
Having  from  lack  of  employment  plenty  of  time  on  his  hands, 
he  wrote  a  comedy  for  the  Rostrum  and   dramatized  a  tale 
of  more  serious  character.     While  occupied  with  such  matters, 
his  active  mind  struck  the  trail    that   led   it   to  the  road  it 
was  destined  to  pursue.      He  was  kept  at  home  a  few  days 
by  a  slight   illness,  and   chanced    to    take   up  an  elementary 
book  of  science  belonging  to  a  Scotchman  who  lodged  in  his 
mother's  house.     It  was   Lectures   on   Experimental  Philoso- 
phy, Astronomy,  and  Chemistry,  intended   chiefly  for  the  use 
of  Young  Persons,  by  G.  Gregory.     The  style  of  the  book — 
suggesting  queries  about  common  things  and  afterward  giv- 
ing the  answers  to  them — was  stimulating  to  a  vigorous  mind. 
This  volume  was  preserved  in  Henry's  library  until  his  death, 
and  the  effect  it  had  upon  him  is  attested  by  the  following 
inscription  which  he  put  upon   its  fly  leaf:    "This  book,  al- 
though by  no  means  a  profound  work,  has,  under  Providence, 
exerted  a  remarkable  influence  upon  my  life.     It  accidentally 


356  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

fell  into  my  hands  when  I  was  about  sixteen  years  old,  and  was 
the  first  work  I  ever  read  with  attention.  It  opened  to  me  a 
new  world  of  thought  and  enjoyment ;  invested  things  before 
almost  unnoticed  with  the  highest  interest ;  fixed  my  mind  on 
the  study  of  Nature,  and  caused  me  to  resolve  at  the  time  of 
reading  it  that  I  would  immediately  commence  to  devote  my 
life  to  the  acquisition  of  knowledge."  In  accordance  with  that 
resolve  he  resigned  from  the  dramatic  society  and  betook 
himself  to  study.  At  first  he  attended  a  night  school  and 
after  a  time  entered  Albany  Academy,  paying  his  way  by  teach- 
ing a  country  district  school  and  later  serving  as  assistant  in 
the  academy.  On  leaving  this  institution  he  obtained  the  posi- 
tion of  tutor  in  the  family  of  the  patroon,  General  Stephen  Van 
Rensselaer,  of  Albany,  occupying  his  leisure  hours  in  studies 
preparatory  to  the  medical  profession,  to  which  he  added  the 
higher  mathematics.  General  Van  Rensselaer  was  an  old 
friend  of  the  family.  He  regarded  Henry  in  the  light  of  a 
son,  and  Henry  was  wont  to  say  that  the  general  taught  him 
what  it  was  to  have  a  father,  and  what  were  the  feelings  of  a 
son.  Later  he  made  a  survey  for  a  road  across  the  southern 
part  of  the  State,  from  West  Point  to  Lake  Erie.  In  1826  he 
returned  to  the  Albany  Academy  as  an  assistant,  and  in  1828 
was  made  Professor  of  Mathematics. 

Mr.  Henry  had  now  become  interested  in  the  subject  of 
electro-magnetism,  which  had  recently  been  much  advanced  by 
the  discoveries  of  Oersted  and  Ampere.  In  1827  he  read  before 
the  Albany  Institute  a  paper  entitled  On  Some  Modifications 
of  the  Electro-magnetic  Apparatus.  "By  his  skilful  experi- 
mental investigations,"  says  Mr.  William  B.  Taylor,  in  speaking 
of  this  paper,  "  Henry  was  enabled  to  exhibit  all  the  class  illus- 
trations, attempted  by  Sturgeon,  not  only  on  a  still  larger  and 
more  conspicuous  scale,  with  the  use  of  feeble  magnets  (where 
required),  but  with  a  still  further  reduction  of  the  battery 
power  ...  by  the  simple  expedient  of  adopting,  in  every  case 
where  single  circuits  had  hitherto  been  employed,  the  manifold 
coil  of  fine  wire  which  Schweigger  had  employed  to  increase 
the  sensibility  of  the  galvanometer."  This  was  Henry's  first 
contribution  to  electrical  science.  "Should  any  one  be  dis- 
posed to  conclude  that  this  simple  extension  of  Schweigger's 
multiple  coil  was  unimportant  and  unmeritorious,  the  ready  an- 
swer occurs  that  talented  and  skilful  electricians  labouring  to 


JOSEPH   HENRY. 

attain  the  result  had  for  six  years  failed  to  make  such  an  ex- 
tension. Nor  was  the  result  by  any  means  made  antecedently 
assured  by  Schweigger's  success  with  the  galvanometer.  If 
Sturgeon's  improvement  of  economizing  the  battery  size  and 
consumption  by  increasing  the  magnet  factor  (in  those  few 
cases  where  available)  was  well  deserving  of  reward,*  surely 
Henry's  improvement  of  a  far  greater  economy,  by  increasing 
the  circuit  factor  (entirely  neglected  by  Sturgeon),  deserved 
a  still  higher  applause." 

In  describing  Henry's  work  during  the  next  few  years  Mr. 
Taylor  continues:  "  To  Henry  belongs  the  exclusive  credit  of 
having  first  constructed  the  magnetic  spool  or  bobbin,  that 
form  of  coil  since  universally  employed  for  every  application 
of  electro-magnetism,  of  induction,  or  of  magneto-electrics. 
.  .  .  By  means  of  the  Henry  '  spool '  the  magnet,  almost  at  a 
bound,  was  developed  from  a  feeble  childhood  to  a  vigorous 
manhood,  and  so  rapidly  and  generally  was  the  new  form  in- 
troduced abroad  among  experimenters,  few  of  whom  had  ever 
seen  the  papers  of  Henry,  that  probably  very  few  indeed  have 
been  aware  to  whom  they  were,  really  indebted  for  this  familiar 
and  powerful  instrumentality.  .  .  . 

"  But,  in  addition  to  this  large  gift  to  science,  Henry  has  the 
pre-eminent  claim  to  popular  gratitude,  of  having  first  worked 
out  the  differing  functions  of  two  entirely  different  kinds  of 
electro-magnet :  the  one  surrounded  with  numerous  coils  of  no 
great  length,  designated  by  him  the  '  quantity '  magnet ;  the 
other  surrounded  with  a  continuous  coil  of  very  great  length, 
designated  by  him  the  *  intensity '  magnet.  The  former  and 
more  powerful  system  was  shown  to  be  most  responsive  to  a 
single  galvanic  element  (a  *  quantity  battery ') ;  the  latter 
and  feebler  system  was  shown  to  be  excited  by  a  battery  of 
numerous  elements  ('  an  intensity  battery ') ;  but  at  the  same 
time  was  shown  to  have  the  singular  capability,  never  before 
suspected  or  imagined,  of  subtile  excitation  from  a  distant 
source. 

"But  this  was  not  all.  In  this  distinction  between  the  two 
magnets  Henry  discovered  the  law  that  there  must  be  a  pro- 
portion between  the  aggregate  internal  resistance  of  the  bat- 

*  Sturgeon  for  this  received,  in  1825,  the  silver  medal  of  the  Society  for 
the  Encouragement  of  Arts. 


358  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

tery  and  the  whole  external  resistance  of  the  conjunctive  wire 
or  conducting  circuit  ;  with  the  very  important  practical  con- 
sequence that  by  combining  with  an  '  intensity  '  magnet  of  a 
single  extended  fine  coil  an  intensity  battery  of  many  small 
pairs,  its  electro-motive  force  enables  a  very  long  conductor  to 
be  employed  with  no  sensible  diminution  of  effect.  '  It  takes 
nothing  from  Henry's  discovery  that  Ohm  had  conceived  a 
mathematical  theory  of  the  same  law  in  1827.  Except  to  a 
few  in  Germany  this  theory  was  unknown,  and  did  not  affect 
science  in  England,  France,  or  America  until  much  later.  It 
was  unknown  to  Faraday  and  Wheatstone  in  1837  ;  to  Bain  in 


In  1831,  Henry  made  an  apparatus  by  which  he  caused  a 
steel  bar,  suspended  between  the  poles  of  an  electro.-magnet, 
to  swing  and  give  signals  by  its  strokes  on  a  bell.  He  operated 
this  through  more  than  a  mile  of  wire.  Here  was  a  device 
which  might  readily  have  been  developed  into  an  electric  tele- 
graph. 

Mr.  Taylor  says  of  this  memorable  arrangement  : 

"  In  the  first  place,  it  was  the  first  electro-magnetic  tele- 
graph employing  an  intensity  magnet  capable  of  being  excited 
at  very  great  distances  from  a  suitable  intensity  battery.  .  .  . 

"In  the  second  place,  it  was  the  first  electro-magnetic 
telegraph  employing  the  armature  as  a  signalling  device  ;  or 
employing  the  attractive  power  of  the  intermittent  magnet  as 
distinguished  from  the  directive  action  of  the  galvanic  circuit  ; 
that  is  to  say,  it  was,  strictly  speaking,  the  first  magnetic  tele- 
graph. 

"  In  the  third  place,  it  was  the  first  acoustic  telegraph." 

This  is  the  language  of  a  eulogist,  but  it  is  a  fact  that 
Morse  did  not  succeed  in  making  his  telegraph  operate  through 
any  considerable  length  of  wire  until  he  adopted  the  intensity 
magnet  of  Henry.  To  quote  Henry's  words  in  his  Statement 
in  Relation  to  the  History  of  the  Electro-magnetic  Telegraph, 
published  by  the  Regents  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  in 
1857,  "The  principles  I  had  developed  were  applied  by  Dr. 
Gale  to  render  Morse's  machine  effective  at  a  distance."  That 
is  Henry's  connection  with  the  Morse  telegraph  in  a  nut- 
shell. 

The  discoveries  which  he  announced  in  1831  attracted  wide 
attention  among  men  of  science,  and  were  the  cause  of  his 


JOSEPH    HENRY.  359 

being  called  the  next  year  to  be  Professor  of  Natural  Philoso- 
phy in  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  now  Princeton  University. 

His  researches  were  interrupted  for  a  year  or  more  when  he 
removed  to  Princeton.  At  first  he  had  his  new  course  of  lec- 
tures to  prepare,  and  in  1833  he  supplied  the  place  of  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Chemistry  and  Geology,  Dr.  Torrey,  during  the 
absence  of  the  latter  in  Europe.  When  he  was  able  to  resume 
his  experiments,  Faraday  was  running  neck  and  neck  with  him 
on  the  same  course.  Several  important  discoveries  were  made 
by  both  men  independently.  In  August,  1829,  Henry  had 
made  in  Albany  the  discovery  of  electrical  self-induction  in 
a  long  helical  wire — the  extra  current  as  it  is  called — in  ad- 
vance of  Faraday,  who  made  independently  the  same  discov- 
ery in  1834.  He  also  made  independently  of  Faraday  the 
great  discovery  of  magneto-electricity.  In  Princeton,  with 
some  coils  of  insulated  copper  ribbon — these  coils  are  known 
in  electrical  text-books  as  "Henry's  coils"  —  he  pursued 
the  subject,  until  he  discovered  that  one  induced  current  can 
produce  another,  the  second  current  a  third,  the  third  a 
fourth,  the  fourth  a  fifth ;  also  that  a  current  of  quantity 
may  be  produced  by  one  of  intensity,  and  the  converse ; 
also  that  currents  can  be  induced  at  a  distance,  and  from 
obtaining  currents  in  one  room  induced  from  primary  cur- 
rents in  another  room,  with  no  connection  merely  by  the  dis- 
turbance of  the  electrical  plenum,  he  passed  to  the  accomplishment 
of  the  same  result  between  an  upper  room  of  the  Philo- 
sophical Hall  and  the  cellar  of  the  same  building ;  then  be- 
tween two  parallel  wires  stretched  perpendicularly,  several 
hundred  feet  apart,  and  then,  connecting  the  tinned  roof  of 
his  house  with  the  ground,  he  magnetized  needles  in  his  libra- 
ry, by  induction,  from  a  thunder  cloud  eight  miles  away.  The 
practical  applications  of  these  discoveries  are  numerous.  In 
1836,  when  in  these  experiments  a  Leyden  jar  was  substituted 
for  galvanism,  these  coils  led  Henry  to  the  discovery  of  the 
oscillatory  character  of  the  electric  discharge.  They  were 
also  used  to  investigate  electric  screening,  which  Henry  at- 
tributed to  the  neutralizing  action  of  a  current  induced  in  the 
interposed  body.  These  discoveries  were  announced  in  the 
years  1834,  1835,  1836,  and  1838.  Before  leaving  Albany  Henry 
had  been  employed  to  make  one  of  his  powerful  magnets  for 
the  laboratory  of  Yale  College,  then  under  the  direction  of  Prof. 


360  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

Silliman.  It  consisted  of  an  octagonal  bar  three  inches  thick 
and  thirty  inches  long,  bent  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe,  and 
was  able  to  lift  more  than  a  ton.  For  his  own  laboratory  at 
Princeton  be  constructed  one  to  surpass  it.  This  lifted  more 
than  three  thousand  pounds.  One  other  contribution  Henry 
here  made  to  the  telegraph.  He  used  the  intensity  spool  and 
battery,  working  through  long  distances,  to  open  and  close  the 
circuit  of  the  quantity  spool  and  battery,  .  .  .  thus  making  the 
powerful  magnet  at  short  range  the  servant  of  the  weak  one 
at  long  range.  This  device  of  opening  one  circuit  by  means 
of  another  is  used  in  the  relay  to  call  into  play  another  inten- 
sity circuit. 

When  he  had  been  four  years  at  Princeton  he  was  given  a 
year's  leave  of  absence  on  full  salary,  in  which  he  made  a  very 
enjoyable  visit  to  Europe.  He  and  his  friend  Dallas  Bache 
arrived  in  England  in  February,  1837.  He  received  an  en- 
thusiastic welcome  from  the  scientists  of  the  old  world,  espe- 
cially from  Faraday.  The  importance  of  his  visit  to  London 
to  the  telegraph  in  England  should  not  be  overlooked.  Wheat- 
stone  was  then  busy  with  his  form  of  the  invention.  He  had 
discarded  the  electro-magnet,  because,  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  sufficient  attractive  power  could  not  be  imparted  to  an 
electro-magnet  interposed  in  a  long  circuit,"  and  had  substi- 
tuted for  it  a  secondary  galvanic  circuit.  Henry  at  this  time 
explained  to  him  his  discovery  of  the  intensity  magnet.  Wheat- 
stone  never  acknowledged  any  indebtedness  to  Henry,  but  it 
is  a  significant  fact  that  before  Henry's  arrival  in  England  the 
electro-magnet  was  discarded  as  inefficient  by  Wheatstone,  and 
after  two  weeks  of  daily  intercourse  with  Henry  it  was  re- 
stored to  his  telegraph,  and  the  success  of  the  English  system 
secured.  Crossing  over  to  Paris  Henry  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Arago,  Becquerel,  De  la  Rive,  Biot,  and  Gay  Lussac.  A 
visit  to  Edinburgh  brought  him  into  contact  with  other  con- 
genial minds,  and  in  September  he  attended  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association,  which  he  addressed,  by  invitation,  giving 
some  of  his  recent  observations  on  the  "  lateral  discharge  " 
from  the  Leyden  jar  or  a  conducting  wire.  He  also  gave  the 
section  of  Mechanics  an  account  of  the  great  extension  of  the 
railway  and  canal  systems  in  the  United  States.  Returning 
home  in  November,  greatly  invigorated  by  his  tour,  Prof. 
Henry  plunged  again  into  his  fruitful  labours. 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  ^6l 

Electricity  was  not  the  only  subject  of  Henry's  investi- 
gations during  his  years  as  a  college  professor.  For  several 
years  in  Albany  he  was  associated  with  Dr.  T.  Romeyn  Beck, 
Principal  of  the  Albany  Academy,  and  the  Hon.  Simeon  De 
Witt,  Chancellor  of  the  Board  of  Regents  of  the  State  Univer- 
sity, in  making  annual  tabulations  of  temperature  and  rainfall 
obtained  at  stations  in  various  parts  of  the  State.  During  the 
same  period  he  made  a  series  of  observations  for  Prof.  Ren- 
wick,  of  Columbia  College,  to  determine  the  magnetic  intensity 
at  Albany,  by  which  he  was  led  to  researches  upon  the  aurora 
borealis.  His  interest  in  meteorology  continued  throughout 
his  residence  at  Princeton,  and  prompted  several  communica- 
tions to  the  Philosophical  Society.  In  1839  he  and  Prof. 
Bache  induced  the  society  to  memorialize  the  Government  to 
establish  stations  for  magnetic  and  meteorological  observa- 
tions. This  application  was  only  in  part  successful. 

In  the  field  of  physics  outside  of  electricity  he  investigated 
the  capillary  movement  of  liquid  metals  in  solid  metals,  the 
cohesion  of  liquids  as  seen  in  the  soap  bubble,  on  phosphores- 
cence, on  the  radiation  from  sun  spots,  etc. 

We  come  now  to  Prof.  Henry's  connection  with  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  The  origin  of  this  great  scientific  bureau 
was  admirably  described  by  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb  in  his 
memorial  address  on  Henry.  He  says :  "  James  Smithson,  a 
private  English  gentleman  of  fortune  and  scientific  tastes,  a 
chemist  of  sufficient  note  to  be  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society,  led  a  comparatively  retired  life,  and  died,  unmarried, 
in  1829.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  left  any  near  relatives 
except  a  nephew.  On  opening  his  will  it  was  found  to  be 
short  and  simple.  Except  an  annuity  to  his  servant,  he  left  the 
nephew,  for  his  life,  the  whole  income  from  the  property,  and 
the  property  itself  to  the  nephew's  children,  should  he  leave 
any.  In  case  of  the  death  of  the  nephew  without  leaving  a 
child  or  children,  the  whole  property  was  bequeathed  *  to  the 
United  States  of  America,  to  found  at  Washington,  under  the 
name  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  an  establishment  for  the  in- 
crease and  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  men.'  .  .  . 

"  We  thus  have  the  curious  spectacle  of  a  retired  English 

gentleman,    probably    unacquainted   with    a   single  American 

citizen,    bequeathing   the   whole   of   his  large  fortune  to   our 

Government  to  found  an  establishment  which  was  described 

24 


362  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

in  ten  words,  without  a  memorandum  of  any  kind  by  which 
his  intentions  could  be  divined  or  the  recipient  of  the  gift 
guided  in  applying  it. 

"  Hungerford  [the  nephew]  died  in  1835.  An  amicable  suit 
in  Chancery  was  instituted  by  our  Government,  through  the 
Hon.  Richard  Rush  as  its  agent,  the  defendant  being  the 
Messrs.  Drummond,  executors  of  Smithson.  Although  there 
was  no  contest  at  any  point,  the  suit  occupied  three  years. 
On  May  9,  1838,  the  property  was  adjudged  to  the  United 
States,  and  during  the  next  few  months  disposed  of  by  Mr. 
Rush  for  about  ^105,000.  The  money  was  deposited  in  the 
treasury  in  the  following  autumn." 

The  absence  of  details  in  Smithson's  bequest  imposed  upon 
Congress  the  difficult  task  of  making  up  its  collective  mind 
as  to  what  kind  of  an  institution  it  would  found.  It  took 
nearly  eight  years  to  do  this.  <l  The  act  under  which  the  In- 
stitution was  at  last  organized  became  a  law  in  August,  1846. 
This  law  provided  that  the  business  of  the  Institution  should 
be  conducted  by  a  Board  of  Regents,  who  should  choose  a 
suitable  person  as  Secretary  of  the  Institution.  It  also  pro- 
vided for  the  erection  of  a  suitable  building  of  plain  and 
durable  materials  and  structure,  without  unnecessary  orna- 
ment, for  the  reception  of  objects  of  natural  history,  a 
chemical  laboratory,  a  library  and  gallery  of  art,  and  the 
necessary  lecture  rooms." 

The  Regents  took  expert  advice  as  to  how  the  act  of  Con- 
gress should  be  carried  out,  among  those  whom  they  consulted 
being  Prof.  Henry.  He  responded  with  a  statement  which 
showed  such  a  comprehensive  grasp  of  the  subject  that,  on 
Dec.  3,  1846,  he  was  elected  Secretary  of  the  Institution.  The 
choice  between  continuing  a  career  of  successful  and  highly 
gratifying  research  and  entering  upon  a  course  whose  direction 
was  largely  problematical  now  had  to  be  made.  His  decision 
was  quickly  reached,  being  largely  influenced  by  the  plea  of 
Prof.  Bache  that  Henry's  efforts  were  needed  to  secure  the 
proper  administration  of  Smithson's  munificent  bequest,  and  be- 
fore the  month  was  out  he  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  office. 
His  suggestions  above  mentioned,  recast  to  conform  to  the 
positive  commands  of  Congress,  were  adopted  a  year  later  by 
the  Regents  as  a  programme  of  organization.  He  found  himself 
hampered  by  the  appropriation  of  a  large  sum  for  a  building, 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  363 

and  by  the  requirement  that  the  fund  should  support  a  mu- 
seum, a  library,  an  art  gallery,  and  courses  of  lectures.  Not 
one  of  these  institutions,  because  of  their  purely  local  influence, 
were,  in  his  judgment,  consistent  with  the  purposes  of  the 
founder,  which  were  to  u  increase  "  and  to  "  diffuse  "  knowl- 
edge. By  pursuing  an  unbending  but  judicious  policy,  some- 
what aided  by  subsequent  events,  Henry  succeeded  in  turning 
most  of  the  resources  of  the  Institution  upon  the  encourage- 
ment of  original  research  by  prizes  and  subsidies,  and  the 
publication  of  reports  and  treatises  setting  forth  the  progress 
made  in  the  different  branches  of  knowledge.  This  result 
was  not  attained  without  a  long  continued  struggle  against 
narrow  prejudice,  selfish  interests,  and  misguided  schemes  of 
philanthropy,  involving  some  sharp  conflicts.  As  obstacles  did 
not  turn  the  secretary  from  his  course,  neither  did  allurements 
draw  him  away.  He  declined  the  professorship  resigned  by 
Dr.  Hare  in  1847,  which  was  tendered  to  him  by  the  Trustees 
of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  although  its  income  was 
more  than  double  his  salary  at  the  Smithsonian,  and  six  years 
later  he  refused  his  consent  to  a  movement  to  make  him  presi- 
dent of  the  college  at  Princeton. 

Under  Prof.  Henry's  able  management  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  quickly  became  a  power  for  the  advancement  of 
science.  In  his  first  report  he  announced  the  acceptance  for 
publication  of  the  famous  work  of  Squier  and  Davis  on 
Ancient  Monuments  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  At  the  same 
time  he  proposed  "  an  extensive  system  of  meteorological  ob- 
servations, particularly  with  reference  to  American  storms," 
for  which  Prof.  Loomis  had  suggested  that  the  telegraph, 
then  in  its  infancy,  could  render  valuable  service.  This  work 
was  undertaken  in  1849  and  steadily  grew  in  importance  and 
value,  so  that  in  1870  the  Government  was  induced  to  establish 
the  Signal  Office  as  a  bureau  of  the  War  Department. 

American  anthropology  was  a  subject  early  taken  up  and 
energetically  promoted  by  the  Institution.  Special  explora- 
tions were  conducted,  a  splendid  collection  of  objects  was 
gathered,  and  numerous  valuable  publications  in  this  field 
were  issued.  Very  early  in  his  administration  Prof.  Henry 
organized  the  Smithsonian  system  of  exchanges  by  which  the 
scientific  memoirs  of  societies  or  individuals  in  any  part  of  the 
United  States  are  transmitted  to  foreign  countries  without  ex- 


364  PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

pense  to  the  senders,  and  similar  publications  from  abroad  are 
distributed  to  their  intended  recipients.  From  this  system  of 
exchanges,  not  only  in  publications  but  in  objects  of  interest, 
the  great  National  Museum  has  sprung — a  child  grown  larger, 
in  buildings  at  least,  than  its  mother.  The  Library  of  Congress 
has  been  increased  from  the  same  source,  so  that,  while  at 
Henry's  death  the  original  sum  of  the  bequest  remained  intact, 
the  objects  desired  by  the  opponents  of  his  policy,  have  been 
secured.  A  general  index  of  memoirs  on  scientific  subjects 
from  1800  was  one  of  Henry's  ideas  which  could  not  be  carried 
out  with  the  part  of  the  income  of  the  Institution  available,  but 
it  has  been  fortunately  given  form  in  the  great  Royal  Society's 
Catalogue  of  Scientific  Papers,  due  credit  for  the  suggestion 
being  given  in  the  preface  to  that  monumental  work.  The  pub- 
lications actually  issued  by  the  Smithsonian  in  the  course  of 
Henry's  administration  comprise,  first,  over  one  hundred  impor- 
tant original  memoirs,  forming  twenty-one  large  quarto  volumes 
of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowledge,  most  of  them 
universally  recognised  as  authorities  on  their  respective  topics; 
and,  second,  fifteen  octavo  volumes  of  Smithsonian  Miscella- 
neous Collections,  more  technical  than  the  Contributions,  to 
which  should  be  added  the  thirty  octavo  volumes  of  annual 
Reports,  in  which  the  secretary  gave  an  account  of  his  stew- 
ardship. In  1870  the  Regents  testified  to  their  appreciation  of 
his  service  by  giving  him  a  leave  of  absence,  with  an  allowance 
for  expenses,  in  order  that  he  might  take  a  European  trip.  He 
spent  four  and  a  half  months  abroad,  being  everywhere  re- 
ceived with  consideration,  and  hearing  abundant  commenda- 
tions of  the  institution  which  he  represented. 

Although  no  part  of  his  duty  as  director  of  the  Smithsonian, 
Prof.  Henry  was  frequently  called  upon  to  use  his  scientific 
knowledge  and  ability  in  the  service  of  the  Government.  On 
the  establishment  of  the  Lighthouse  Board,  in  1852,  he  was 
appointed  one  of  its  members,  and  in  1871  became  its  chair- 
man. The  advancing  cost  of  whale  oil  soon  made  a  more 
economical  illuminant  necessary.  By  a  series  of  thorough 
tests  he  demonstrated  that  lard  oil,  which  had  been  pronounced 
unsuitable,  was  really  superior  to  the  colza  or  rape-seed  oil 
used  in  France,  and  the  sperm  oil  heretofore  used.  Kerosene 
had  not  yet  become  a  reliable  commercial  article.  Prof.  Henry 
also  investigated  the  comparative  advantages  of  the  steam 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  365 

whistle,  trumpet,  and  siren  for  fog  signals,  deciding  in  favour 
of  the  last  named.  This  problem,  however,  had  many  perplex- 
ing sides,  and  occupied  a  large  share  of  his  attention  for  the 
last  twelve  years  of  his  life. 

"  The  value  of  Henry's  services  to  the  various  executive 
departments  of  our  Government,  faithfully  and  unostenta- 
tiously performed  through  a  long  series  of  years  and  a  suc- 
cession of  presidential  administrations,  can  not  be  estimated," 
says  W.  B.  Taylor,  in  the  admirable  discourse  prepared  for 
the  Philosophical  Society  of  Washington,  from  which  much  of 
the  material  of  the  present  account  has  been  taken.  "  When- 
ever in  any  important  case  a  scientific  adviser  could  be  useful 
to  the  proper  conduct  of  a  bureau,  Henry's  reputation  gener- 
ally pointed  him  out  as  the  most  suitable  expert  and  arbiter. 
On  the  outbreak  of  the  great  Civil  War,  the  number  of  such 
references  was  naturally  very  considerably  increased.  The 
departments  of  War,  of  the  Navy,  and  of  the  Treasury  were  be- 
sieged by  projectors  with  every  imaginable  and  impossible 
scheme  for  saving  the  country  and  demolishing  the  enemy. 
Torpedo  balloons,  electric-light  balloons,  wonderful  com- 
pounds destined  to  supersede  gunpowder  and  revolutionize 
the  art  of  war ;  cheap  methods  for  the  manufacture  of  Govern- 
ment bonds  and  paper  money ;  multitudinous  expedients  for 
the  prevention  of  counterfeiting  by  devices  in  the  engraving, 
by  secret  markings,  by  anti-photographic  inks,  by  peculiar  tex- 
tures of  paper  (applicable  to  coupons,  to  circulating  notes, 
to  revenue  stamps),  each  warranted  to  be  infallible — such 
were  among  the  agencies  by  which  patriotic  patentees  and 
adroit  adventurers  were  willing  to  serve  their  country,  and  to 
reap  their  reward  by  the  moderate  royalty  or  percentage  due 
to  the  magnificence  of  the  public  benefit."  When  it  was  pro- 
posed that  the  pay  of  an  expert  should  be  given  for  these  serv- 
ices Henry  refused,  preferring  to  make  them  a  free  gift  to  the 
country. 

With  so  many  exacting  duties  is  it  to  be  supposed  that 
Henry  would  find  any  opportunity  to  use  his  splendid  talents 
for  original  research  ?  He  had  no  expectation  of  it  when  he 
left  Princeton,  yet  in  spite  of  the  improbability  he  made  some 
valuable  advances  in  directions  of  his  own  choice.  He  so  im- 
proved the  thermo-galvanic  multiplicator  of  Nobili  and  Melloni 
as  to  produce  his  wonderfully  sensitive  "thermal  telescope" 


366  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

with  which  he  tested  the  radiation  of  the  atmosphere  and  the 
clouds.  He  also  made  other  researches  in  radiation ;  he  in- 
vestigated the  expansion  of  a  bar  of  iron  at  the  moment  of 
magnetization  by  a  galvanic  current,  and  many  minor  ques- 
tions. In  1868  he  was  elected  President  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences  to  succeed  his  friend  Prof.  Bache,  who 
had  died  in  the  preceding  year. 

"After  an  almost  uninterrupted  period  of  excellent  health 
for  fifty  years,"  to  quote  his  own  words,  Prof.  Henry  was 
attacked  early  in  December,  1^77,  with  what  seemed  to  be 
paralysis,  but  in  a  few  days  proved  to  be  nephritis.  The  dis- 
ease was  already  far  advanced  and  steadily  progressed,  with 
occasional  alternations  of  more  favourable  symptoms,  to  the 
inevitable  result.  On  May  13,  1878^  calmly  and  with  unim- 
paired intellect,  Joseph  Henry  passed  away. 

Prof.  Henry  was  above  the  middle  height,  finely  propor- 
tioned, and  of  dignified  bearing.  In  his  character  earnestness 
was  his  most  conspicuous  trait.  This  was  evinced  in  his  pur- 
suit of  knowledge,  which  was  so  earnest  that  he  never  thought 
about  securing  personal  glory  in  connection  with  it,  and  had 
no  time  for  arguing  when  his  hypothesis  was  assailed.  His 
friends  early  learned  that  the  way  to  get  him  to  take  any  de- 
sired action  was  not  to  point  out  the  honour  or  other  benefit 
that  it  would  secure  for  him,  but  to  show  that  it  would  promote 
the  interests  of  science.  The  same  trait  explains  his  intense 
antipathy  to  scientific  or  other  hoaxes,  and  the  fact  that  in 
working  for  any  desired  end  he  never  concealed  his  purpose. 
Thus,  when  he  took  charge  of  the  Smithsonian  he  made  no 
secret  of  his  wish  to  secure  important  changes  in  the  act  of 
Congress  which  prescribed  its  scope,  and  he  worked  for  this 
end  with  the  inflexibility  of  purpose,  which  was  another  of  his 
characteristics,  until  the  soundness  of  his  views  was  acknowl- 
edged. He  was  also  remarkably  considerate  of  the  feelings  of 
others,  as  was  shown  conspicuously  in  his  dealings  with  those 
who  differed  from  him,  and  with  the  visionaries  that  afflict 
every  one  in  a  conspicuous  scientific  station. 

Prof.  Henry  married  in  May,  1830,  Miss  Alexander,  of 
Schenectady,  the  sister  of  Prof.  Alexander,  of  Princeton,  and 
from  the  ardent  devotion  of  his  wife,  and  the  fraternal  sympathy 
of  her  brother  in  his  pursuits,  he  received  assistance  and  support 
beyond  that  which  usually  fall  to  the  lot  of  men.  The  most 


JOSEPH   HENRY.  367 

peaceful,  and  to  himself  the  most  profitable,  part  of  his  life 
was  that  spent  in  Princeton,  for  which  place,  and  the  college 
located  there,  he  ever  retained  the  warmest  attachment.  Mrs. 
Henry  survived  him  three  years.  His  first  born,  a  son,  died  in 
early  manhood  and  three  children  in  early  infancy ;  his  remain- 
ing children,  three  daughters,  are  still  living. 

Prof.  Henry  was  the  recipient  of  many  well-deserved  hon- 
ours. He  was  elected  to  membership  in  many  learned  societies 
at  home  and  abroad.  Several  institutions  of  learning,  includ- 
ing Harvard  College,  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
A  year  after  his  death  a  memorial  meeting  was  held  in  his 
honour  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  later  Congress 
erected  a  statue  to  his  memory  in  the  grounds  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Institution.  Fifteen  years  after  his  death  the  electrical 
congress,  held  at  the  time  of  the  Columbian  Exposition  in  Chi- 
cago, gave  his  name  to  one  of  the  electrical  units.  The 
"  henry  "  is  "  the  induction  in  a  circuit  when  the  electro-motive 
force  induced  is  one  volt,  while  the  inducing  current  varies  at 
the  rate  of  one  ampere  per  second."  When,  in  1895,  the  sub- 
jects of  statues  to  stand  in  the  new  Library  of  Congress  were 
chosen,  Henry  was  selected  as  one  of  the  two  for  the  scientific 
alcove. 


JAMES   BLYTHE   ROGERS. 

1802-1852. 

SCIENCE  has  need  of  all  manner  of  men  among  its  votaries. 
He  whose  career  will  be  traced  in  this  memoir  devoted  to  its 
service  a  warm  sympathy,  an  inspiring  utterance,  a  high  de- 
gree of  constructive  faculty,  and  a  conscientiousness  which 
caused  him  ever  to  give  his  best  efforts  to  the  duty  before 
him. 

James  Blythe  Rogers  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Feb.  n, 
1802,  being  the  first  child  of  Hannah  (Blythe)  and  Patrick 
Kerr  Rogers.  His  grandfather,  Robert  Rogers,  was  one  of 
the  gentry  of  County  Tyrone,  Ireland.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  he  married  Sarah  Kerr,  daughter  of  a  gentleman  living 
near,  whose  family,  like  his  own,  were  adherents  of  the  Pres- 
byterian Church.  Mr.  Rogers  was  owner  of  the  Edergole  or 
Knockbrack  estate,  lying  between  Omagh  and  Fintano,  forty 
miles  from  Londonderry,  and  held  on  lease  a  piece  of  land  ad- 
joining it.  Dr.  W.  S.  W.  Ruschenberger,  whose  excellent 
memoir  on  The  Brothers  Rogers  *  is  the  chief  available  source 
of  information  concerning  this  family,  mentions  as  additional 
evidence  of  his  social  standing  that  he  inherited  the  large  cen- 
tral pew  in  the  neighbouring  Presbyterian  Church,  which  he 
rebuilt  and  furnished  anew  when  the  church  was  reconstructed. 
Robert  Rogers  was  twice  married ;  his  first  wife  bore  him 
twelve  children,  and  the  second  five.  Patrick  Kerr  Rogers 
was  his  eldest  child.  "The  rudiments  of  Patrick's  education," 
says  Dr.  Ruschenberger,  "  were  received  in  a  schoolhouse 
built  upon  the  estate.  It  is  described  as  having  clay  walls,  a 
thatched  roof,  clay  seats  covered  with  bits  of  carpet,  and  being 
warmed  by  a  turf  fire.  The  teacher  was  a  lame  rustic  boy, 
whom  Patrick's  aunt,  Margaret  Rogers,  a  lady  of  notable  in- 

*  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  vol.  xxiii,  pp.  104-146. 


JAMES   BLYTHE    ROGERS. 


JAMES   BLYTHE   ROGERS.  369 

telligence,  had  trained  for  the  office.  It  is  conjectured  that  he 
acquired  his  classical  learning  from  a  private  tutor  at  the 
house  of  a  kinsman."  The  father  of  Sarah  Kerr  evidently  did 
not  believe  in  the  law  of  primogeniture,  for  he  had  exacted, 
as  a  condition  of  his  daughter's  marriage  to  Robert  Rogers,  a 
settlement  of  all  the  latter's  lands  upon  the  children  of  this 
union,  share  and  share  alike.  Accordingly  Patrick,  although 
the  eldest  child,  could  expect  only  one  twelfth  of  .his  father's 
landed  estate,  and  must  prepare  himself  for  some  other  occu- 
pation than  that  of  a  landlord.  "  Entertaining  opinions  not 
rigidly  orthodox,  he  was  unwilling  to  enter  the  clerical  profes- 
sion, though  he  had  the  example  of  two  uncles  who  were  clergy- 
men." All  things  considered,  a  commercial  career  seemed  best, 
and  he  therefore  entered  a  counting  house  in  Dublin.  When 
the  Irish  rebellion  broke  out,  in  the  spring  of  1798,  he  con- 
tributed to  Dublin  newspapers  certain  articles  inimical  to  the 
Government,  on  account  of  which  he  was  obliged  to  leave  the 
country.  At  that  period  ships  plied  directly  between  Ireland 
and  Philadelphia,  and  on  one  of  these  he  embarked,  landing  at 
his  destination  in  August,  after  a  passage  of  eighty-four  days. 

In  the  following  May  Mr.  Rogers  obtained  an  appoint- 
ment as  a  tutor  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  soon 
afterward  began  to  study  medicine  under  the  famous  Dr.  Ben- 
jamin S.  Barton.  Mr.  Rogers  was  married  January  2,  1801,  his 
wife  being  the  youngest  of  the  three  orphan  daughters  of  a 
Scotch  father  and  an  English  mother.  Their  father,  James 
Blythe,  had  been  a  stationer  and  newspaper  publisher  in  Lon- 
donderry, whither  he  had  gone  from  Glasgow.  After  the 
death  of  both  parents  the  three  sisters  had  come  to  America, 
where  they  were  received  by  a  cousin,  Mrs.  Thomas  Moore. 
At  the  time  of  his  marriage  Mr.  Rogers  was  described  as  "  a 
tall,  erect  man,  of  grave  deportment,  having  dark  hair  well 
sprinkled  with  gray,  and  soft  sleepy  eyes.  He  played  the  vio- 
lin and  sang  well,  but  never  in  company  or  in  the  presence  of 
strangers,  because  such  performance  or  display  seemed  to  him 
inconsistent  with  the  dignity  of  a  gentleman." 

After  receiving  his  medical  degree  from  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  June,  1802,  Dr.  Rogers  began  the  practise  of 
his  profession  in  Philadelphia.  He  also  took  private  pupils 
and  lectured  to  classes  in  botany,  chemistry,  and  other 
sciences.  He  was  called  to  Ireland  in  1803  to  settle  the 


370  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN    AMERICA. 

estate  of  his  father  who  died  in  that  year.  This  business 
disposed  of,  he  returned  to  Philadelphia,  bringing  with  him 
two  brothers  and  a  sister. 

The  next  five  years  of  effort  did  not  bring  him  a  satisfactory 
income  and  he  removed  to  Baltimore,  where  he  was  more  pros- 
perous until  he  became  involved  in  a  controversy  on  methods 
of  vaccination,  which  injured  his  practice.  When  Dr.  Robert 
Hare  resigned  the  professorship  of  Natural  Philosophy  and 
Mathematics  in  the  ancient  College  of  William  and  Mary,  at 
Williamsburg,  Va.,  Dr.  Rogers  was  elected  to  succeed  him. 
In  this  congenial  position  he  remained,  a  competent  and  force- 
ful instructor,  until  he  died  of  malarial  fever  in  1828.  His 
wife  had  succumbed  to  the  same  disease  eight  years  before. 

James  B.  Rogers  received  his  elementary  education  in 
Baltimore  during  the  residence  of  his  parents  in  that  city,  and, 
after  attending  the  college  of  William  and  Mary,  took  up  the 
study  of  medicine  in  the  office  of  Dr.  Thomas  E.  Bond.  In 
1822  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Medicine  from  the 
University  of  Maryland.  It  is  said  that  while  a  student  he 
assisted  his  brothers  William  and  Henry  in  teaching  their 
school  at  Baltimore.  After  graduating  he  taught  for  a  time 
a  class  of  girls  in  conjunction  with  a  Dr.  McClellan,  of  Balti- 
more. This  enterprise  proving  unsatisfactory,  was  given  up. 
Being  now  in  need  of  employment,  he  thought  of  seeking  the 
post  of  surgeon  to  a  colony  of  free  negroes  which  it  was  pro- 
posed to  establish  at  Cape  Mesurado.  He  consulted  his 
father  on  this  matter,  and  must  have  written  a  rather  queru- 
lous letter,  for  he  got  this  chunk  of  paternal  hard  sense  in 
reply  :  "  What  is  the  use  of  your  complaining  of  mankind  ? 
The  world  as  yet  owes  you  nothing.  Up  to  this  time  you 
have  been  simply  a  recipient  of  its  benefits.  Make  yourself 
worthy  of  a  place  here  and  you  will  find  one."  The  project  of 
going  to  Africa  was  abandoned. 

Dr.  Rogers  now  joined  an  intimate  friend  and  fellow- 
student,  Dr.  Henry  Webster,  in  a  partnership  to  practise 
medicine  at  Little  Britain,  Pa.,  about  two  miles  north  of  the 
Maryland  line.  But  after  a  few  years'  experience  he  aban- 
doned the  profession,  having  found  it  repugnant  to  his  mental 
habits  and  sensitive  nature.  He  returned  to  Baltimore,  and 
was  soon  appointed  superintendent  of  the  extensive  chemical 
manufactory  of  Messrs.  Tyson  and  Ellicott. 


JAMES   BLYTHE   ROGERS.  371 

From  this  time  on  Dr.  Rogers  made  pure  and  applied 
chemistry  his  chief  concern.  The  professorship  of  Chemistry 
in  the  Washington  Medical  College  being  offered  to  him,  he 
hesitated  to  accept  it,  thinking  he  was  not  sufficiently  ready 
of  speech  for  a  lecturer.  He  finally  undertook  the  work,  and, 
although  it  was  not  remunerative,  it  served  to  discover  the 
fact  that  he  shared  the  gift  of  eloquence  which  distinguished 
his  brothers.  The  ice  being  thus  broken,  he  found  it  easy  to 
give  chemical  lectures  before  the  Mechanics'  Institute,  in 
Baltimore,  and  later  he  lectured  also  on  physics. 

Dr.  Joseph  Carson  states  in  his  memoir  of  Dr.  Rogers  that 
it  was  William  B.  Rogers  who  induced  his  brother  to  venture 
upon  the  career  of  a  college  lecturer,  and  thus  relates  how  it 
was  accomplished  :  "  To  convince  him  that  he  had  nothing  to 
apprehend  on  that  score  [lack  of  fluency],  his  brother  William 
prevailed  upon  him  to  accompany  him  to  the  lecture  room,  and 
there,  placing  the  future  professor  behind  the  desk,  consti- 
tuted himself  the  audience.  The  theme  was  named,  which 
being  instantly  taken  up  and  amplified  upon,  the  ease  and  full- 
ness with  which  he  spoke  relieved  him  of  his  diffidence  and 
apprehension.  This  was  his  first  effort  to  lecture,  and,  like 
this,  all  his  future  performances  were  without  notes  or  facilities 
of  recollection,  except  those  incident  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
topic." 

In  September,  1830,  being  then  twenty-eight  years  of  age, 
he  married  Rachel  Smith,  of  Baltimore,  a  birthright  member 
of  the  Society  of  Friends. 

Cincinnati  was  the  residence  of  Dr.  J.  B.  Rogers  from  1835 
to  1839,  this  period  being  the  whole  term  of  existence  of  the 
Medical  Department  of  Cincinnati  College,  in  which  he  had 
accepted  the  professorship  of  Chemistry.  The  summer  vaca- 
tions of  these  four  years  he  spent  as  an  assistant  to  his 
brother  William  in  fieldwork  and  chemical  investigations  on 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Virginia.  While  in  Cincinnati  he 
declined  the  office  of  melter  and  refiner  in  the  branch  mint  at 
New  Orleans,  offered  to  him  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States. 

Dr.  Rogers  now,  1840,  removed  to  Philadelphia  and  be- 
came an  assistant  to  his  brother  Henry,  who  was  the  State 
geologist  of  Pennsylvania.  He  also  turned  his  knowledge  of 
chemistry  to  account  in  various  other  occupations.  He  was 


372 


PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


appointed  in  1841  lecturer  on  chemistry  in  the  Philadelphia 
Medical  Institute,  then  a  flourishing  summer  school,  which  had 
been  founded  by  Dr.  Nathaniel  Chapman.  From  1844  to  1847 
he  was  Professor  of  General  Chemistry  in  the  Franklin  In- 
stitute, of  which  institution  he  had  become  a  member  when 
he  went  to  live  in  Philadelphia.  In  this  period  he  and  his 
brother  Robert  compiled  a  text-book  on  Chemistry  from  the 
Inorganic  Chemistry  of  Dr.  Edward  Turner  and  the  Organic 
Chemistry  of  Dr.  William  Gregory.  It  was  published  in  1846. 
He  also  conducted  quiz  classes  of  medical  students.  He  was 
for  a  time  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Franklin  Medical 
College,  and  represented  this  institution  in  the  National 
Medical  Convention,  held  at  Philadelphia  in  1847,  which  or- 
ganized the  American  Medical  Association. 

In  1847  he  succeeded  the  celebrated  Dr.  Robert  Hare  as 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
— a  curious  coincidence  in  connection  with  his  father's  suc- 
ceeding Dr.  Hare  at  Williamsburg.  In  this  position  he  re- 
mained until  his  death,  five  years  later.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  representatives  of  the  university  in  the  National  Con- 
vention of  1850  for  revising  the  Pharmacopoeia  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1846  he  was  elected  to  membership  in  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  and  the  following  year  joined  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 

Dr.  Rogers  was  of  slight  frame  and  never  enjoyed  robust 
health.  'In  his  latter  years  he  suffered  at  times  from  nervous 
exhaustion  and  defective  nutrition,  probably  induced  by  unre- 
mitting labour.  He  died  June  15,  1852,  leaving  a  widow,  two 
sons,  William  B.  and  Henry  A.,  also  a  daughter,  Mary  V. 
Rogers. 

Never  favoured  by  prosperity,  Dr.  Rogers  was  particularly 
straitened  in  circumstances  during  the  first  part  of  his  resi- 
dence in  Philadelphia.  It  was  not  until  he  entered  upon  his 
last  professorship  that  he  received  a  comfortable  salary.  The 
institutions  with  which  he  had  been  connected  before  were 
small  and  weak  or  came  to  grief  in  some  way  that  could  not 
be  anticipated.  While  lack  of  shrewdness  and  assertiveness 
on  his  own  part  may  have  contributed  to  hinder  his  ad- 
vancement, his  worth  as  a  teacher  is  beyond  question.  He 
was  everywhere  esteemed  by  his  colleagues  and  popular 


JAMES   BLYTHE   ROGERS.  373 

among  his  students.  Dr.  Carson  said  of  him,  "  Disinterested 
and  generous  in  his  relations  with  the  world,  mild  and  con- 
ciliating in  deportment,  open  and  affable  when  approached, 
urbane  to  every  one,  his  virtues  shone  conspicuously  within 
the  circle  of  his  friends.  With  his  pupils  he  was  sympathiz- 
ing ;  he  entered  cheerfully  into  their  discouragements  and 
difficulties ;  and  those  who  confided  to  him  received  that  en- 
couragement and  counsel  so  grateful  to  the  student's  feelings. 
He  was  emphatically  the  student's  friend." 


JOHN   ERICSSON. 

1803-1889. 

THE  arts  of  marine  engineering  and  naval  construction 
have  been  revolutionized  through  the  inventions  of  Captain 
Ericsson.  As  is  remarked  in  Mr.  W.  C.  Church's  biography  of 
him,  "  in  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  could  look  back  upon 
*  a  change  in  the  physical  relations  of  man  to  the  planet  on 
which  he  dwells,  greater  than  any  which  can  be  distinctly 
measured  in  any  known  period  of  historic  time,'  and  this  he 
had  no  small  part  in  creating." 

John  Ericsson  was  born  at  Langbanshyttan,  in  the  province 
of  Wermland,  Sweden,  July  31,  1803,  and  died  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  March  8,  1889.  His  ancestry  is  traced  back  to  the 
family  of  Leif  Ericsson,  the  son  of  Eric  the  Red,  the  Norse 
discoverer  of  America.  He  was  also  related  to  Thorwaldsen, 
the  sculptor,  who  was  descended,  according  to  Mr.  John  Fiske, 
from  the  son  of  Thorfmn  Karlsefne,  the  first  white  child  born  on 
American  soil.  His  father,  Olaf  Ericsson,  was  a  proprietor  of 
mines ;  his  mother  was  a  daughter  of  an  ironmaster,  and  was  pos- 
sessed of  gifts  which,  according  to  Mr.  Church,  she  transmitted 
to  her  sons  Nils  and  John.  She  used  to  relate  that  an  old 
man  had  prophesied  to  her  father  that  two  boys  would  be  born 
in  the  family  who  would  become  famous.  John  manifested  an 
aptitude  for  constructive  work  at  an  early  age.  As  a  child  he 
amused  himself  with  drawing,  boring,  and  cutting.  A  little 
older,  he  watched  the  engines  at  the  mines,  copied  their 
models  in  his  drawings,  and  studied  their  motions.  He  traced 
the  first  suggestion  of  his  future  career  to  the  day  when,  in 
his  seventh  year,  he  dug  a  mine  a  foot  deep  and  made  a  ladder 
for  the  use  of  imaginary  miners.  When  nine  years  old  he  had 
learned  the  use  of  drawing  instruments  and  the  art  of  prepar- 
ing constructive  plans. 

374 


JOHN    EKICSSON. 


JOHN   ERICSSON.  375 

In  the  industrial  disturbances  occasioned  by  the  war  with 
Russia  Ericsson's  father  lost  all  his  property  and  was  thrown 
out  of  business.  In  1811  he  obtained  a  responsible  position  in 
connection  with  the  construction  of  the  Gotha  Canal,  in  which 
he  gradually  rose.  John  in  the  meantime  was  improving  in 
the  exercise  of  his  rare  talents.  In  the  deep  forests,  to  which 
his  father  had  removed,  drawing  tools  were  hard  to  get.  He 
had  a  pen  and  pencil.  He  made  compasses  of  wood  with 
needles  for  the  points ;  contrived  a  drawing  pen  out  of  a  pair 
of  tweezers  ;  and  made  brushes  of  the  hairs  of  his  mother's 
sable  cloak.  With  these  home-made  instruments  he  executed 
the  drawings  for  a  pumping  engine  to  be  operated  by  a  wind- 
mill. 

The  best  use  was  made  for  the  Ericsson  boys  of  the  limited 
educational  advantages  which  the  region  afforded.  A  govern- 
ess was  furnished  them  in  the  years  1811  and  1812.  A 
draughtsman,  connected  with  the  work  on  the  canal,  taught 
them  how  to  finish  their  drawings  in  a  style  which  rivalled  that 
of  engraving.  They  were  given  access  to  the  draughtsman's 
office  of  the  canal  company.  John  exhibited  his  first  drawing 
to  the  scale  when  eight  years  old,  and  he  learned  to  sketch 
maps.  One  of  the  superintending  constructors  of  the  canal 
was  engaged  to  teach  the  boys  algebra  and  architectural 
drawing.  Another  tutor  "  plagued  them  with  lessons  in  Latin 
grammar,"  from  whom  also  John  learned  "  chemistry  and 
many  other  things,"  he  says,  "  of  great  use  to  me  ;  for  in- 
stance, how  to  make  and  mix  colours  for  my  drawings  out 
of  materials  bought  at  the  druggists  for  a  few  cents."  The 
curate  at  Fredsberg  on  the  Lefsang  was  engaged  to  teach 
them  French.  The  most  distinguished  mechanical  draughts- 
man in  the  country  gave  them  further  perfection  in  his  art ; 
and  other  instructors,  drawn  also  from  the  professional  men 
engaged  on  the  canal,  taught  them  algebra,  field  drawing, 
geometry,  and  English.  While  John  was  naturally  disposed 
to  think  and  act  for  himself,  these  lessons  tended  to  promote 
and  encourage  his  intellectual  self-reliance.  When  a  friend 
spoke  to  him  with  regret  of  his  not  having  been  graduated 
from  some  technological  institute,  he  answered  that  the  fact, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  very  fortunate.  If  he  had  taken  a 
course  at  such  an  institution,  he  would  have  acquired  such  a 
belief  in  authorities  that  he  would  never  have  been  able  to 


376  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

develop  originality  and  make  his  own  way  in  physics  and 
mechanics. 

When  John  was  eleven  years  old  he  and  his  brother  be- 
came pupils  in  engineering  of  Captain  Edstrom,  who  had  been 
sent  to  England  to  study  the  most  approved  methods  in  canal 
construction.  He  was  so  pleased  with  their  work  that  he 
recommended  them  to  Count  Platen,  President  of  the  Gotha 
Ship  Canal.  This  officer  had  been  shown  specimens  of  what 
John  had  done,  and,  receiving  him,  predicted  that  if  he  con- 
tinued as  he  had  begun,  he  would  some  day  produce  something 
extraordinary.  When  twelve  years  old  John  was  employed, 
under  the  direction  of  his  chief,  in  drawing  profile  maps  and 
plans  for  use  on  the  canal,  and  to  be  filed  in  the  archives  of 
the  company  ;  in  the  next  year  he  was  assistant  to  the  niveleur 
(or  leveler)  in  charge  of  the  station  of  Riddarhagen  ;  and  in 
another  year,  when  only  fourteen  years  old,  and  obliged  to 
stand  on  a  stool  to  reach  the  eyepiece  of  his  surveyor's  level, 
he  was  put  in  charge  of  the  Rottkilms  station,  where  he  had  to 
give  directions  daily  to  six  hundred  men.  About  this  time  he 
became  assistant  to  the  chief  of  the  work.  While  engaged  as 
leveler  he  made  drawings  of  the  Sunderland  iron  bridge,  which 
Count  Platen  admired  very  much.  He  drew  for  his  private 
use  maps  and  sketches  of  important  parts  of  the  canal  and  of 
the  machinery  used  in  its  construction,  which  he  began  to  pub- 
lish several  years  afterward,  inventing  an  engraving  machine 
to  enable  the  work  to  be  more  speedily  done.  He  found,  how- 
ever, that  the  machinery  illustrated  by  his  drawings  was  being 
superseded  in  the  rapid  progress  of  improvement  in  mechan- 
ical construction,  and  discontinued  this  enterprise. 

In  1820,  when  Ericsson  was  seventeen  years  old,  after  his 
father  had  died,  he  entered  the  military  service  of  Sweden, 
and  was  appointed  an  ensign  in  the  Royal  Field  Chasseurs  of 
Jamtland,  and  stationed  at  Froson,  near  Ostersund.  The  step 
was  taken  against  the  protest  of  Count  Platen,  and  was  the 
occasion  of  a  breach  between  them.  Soon  after  joining  his 
regiment  he  was  recommended  for  promotion,  but  his  colonel 
was  out  of  favour  at  court,  and  the  recommendation  would 
not  have  been  heeded,  had  not  the  Duke  of  Upland,  son  of 
King  Bernadotte,  pleaded  for  him.  The  Duke  showed  his 
Majesty  one  of  Ericsson's  military  maps,  whereby  the  pro- 
motion was  secured,  and  the  king's  attention  was  directed  to 


JOHN   ERICSSON. 

Ericsson's  skill  as  an  engineer.  Ericsson  was  subsequently 
commissioned  to  draw  maps  to  illustrate  the  campaigns  of 
Bernadotte  as  marshal  of  Napoleon.  He  passed  the  exam- 
ination for  and  obtained  an  appointment  on  the  survey  of 
northern  Sweden,  and  in  connection  with  that  -work  made 
detailed  drawings  of  fifty  square  miles  of  the  country. 

On  the  advice  of  friends,  including  the  king,  who  considered 
his  abilities  greater  than  could  be  adequately  rewarded  in 
Sweden,  and  himself,  no  doubt,  willing  to  seek  a  larger  field  of 
usefulness,  Ericsson  in  1826  secured  a  leave  of  absence  from 
the  service  and  went  to  England.  He  took  with  him  plans, 
including  a  flame  engine  which  he  had  experimented  on  suc- 
cessfully with  wood  as  fuel,  but  which  was  not  available  when 
coal  was  used;  and  a  still  undeveloped  idea  in  his  mind  of 
a  vessel  which  "it  was  possible  for  Sweden  to  build,  and 
which  would  render  the  wooden  walls  of  England  of  no  avail 
against  her."  He  had  intended  to  resign  his  lieutenancy,  but, 
overstaying  his  leave  of  absence  without  obtaining  an  accept- 
ance of  his  resignation,  he  was  placed  in  an  embarrassing  posi- 
tion, from  which  he  was  extricated  by  the  intercession  of  the 
crown  prince;  and  in  October,  1827,  he  received  a  promotion 
to  a  captaincy  and  an  acceptance  of  his  resignation.  The 
title  of  captain  thus  obtained,  and  a  degree  of  LL.  D.  from 
an  American  university,  were  the  only  honours  he  cared  to 
display  to  the  public,  though  he  had  many  others  equally 
high. 

In  the  two  years  1828  and  1829,  after  he  went  to  England, 
Captain  Ericsson  completed  seven  inventions.  One  of  these, 
a  machine  for  compressing  air,  was  used  in  clearing  one  of 
the  Cornish  mines  of  water  ;  another  involved  the  use  of  arti- 
ficial draught  for  steam-boiler  furnaces.  Sir  John  Ross  was 
preparing  for  his  second  arctic  expedition,  but  not  wishing  his 
purpose  known,  concealed  it  in  ordering  the  engines  of  his 
vessel ;  and  the  contractors,  Braithwaite  and  Ericsson,  suppos- 
ing that  the  voyage  was  to  be  of  an  ordinary  character,  put  in 
one  of  these  engines  with  other  appendages  not  adapted  to 
arctic  navigation.  When  Captain  Ericsson  learned  the  destina- 
tion of  the  vessel,  he  warned  Captain  Ross  that  the  engine  had 
not  been  built  for  that  kind  of  work  and  would  be  useless.  His 
prediction  was  fulfilled  as  soon  as  the  vessel  entered  arctic 
waters,  and  the  engine  was  thrown  overboard.  The  principle 
25 


378  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

was,  however,  retained  for  ordinary  steam  vessels,  with  results 
quite  satisfactory.  The  third  invention  was  a  steam  fire  en- 
gine. The  first,  an  experimental  engine,  was  followed  by  four 
others,  completed,  one  of  which,  sent  to  Prussia,  proved  so 
efficient  that  the  designer  received,  in  recognition  of  its  value, 
an  honorary  membership  in  the  Berlin  Institute.  Another  en- 
gine, employed  in  London,  "extinguished  the  fires,  but  was  ob- 
jected to  and  rejected  on  account  of  the  quantity  of  water  it 
required;  and  it  was  nearly  thirty  years  before  London  would 
have  another  steam  fire  engine,  inferior  to  Ericsson's. 

In  1829,  while  it  was  still  undecided  whether  stationary  or 
locomotive  traction  should  be  adopted  for  the  railway  between 
Liverpool  and  Manchester,  a  prize  of  five  hundred  .pounds  was 
offered  for  the  best  locomotive.  Although  five  months  were 
given  to  the  competitors  in  which  to  prepare  themselves, 
Ericsson  did  not  learn  of  the  offer  till  within  seven  weeks  of 
the  day  of  trial.  Stephenson  brought  out  his  "  Rocket "  en- 
gine, with  every  appointment  perfect  and  tested.  Ericsson 
produced  his  "  Novelty,"  graceful  in  design  and  structure,  and 
with  every  part  planned  on  sound  principles,  but  built  in  haste 
and  untested.  It  suffered  two  breakdowns  in  the  trial,  caused 
by  undetected  faults  in  workmanship ;  but  not  before  it  had 
passed  the  "  Rocket "  and  reached  a  speed  of  thirty-two  miles 
an  hour.  Ericsson  withdrew  it  in  disgust,  and  the  prize  went 
to  Stephenson.  But  every  one  admired  the  beauty  of  the 
"  Novelty"  ;  the  judges  spoke  of  its  appearance  as  being  very 
much  in  its  favour,  and  commended  the  ingenuity  with  which 
the  machinery  was  so  contrived  as  to  work  out  of  sight,  and  the 
compactness  of  its  form ;  and  John  Scott  Russell,  the  eminent 
English  engineer,  wrote  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  in  1840 
that  "  the  4  Novelty  '  had  to  be  withdrawn  through  a  series  of 
unfortunate  accidents  which  had  no  reference  to  the  character 
or  capabilities  of  the  engine.  And  we  well  recollect  that  it 
made  a  profound  impression  on  the  public  mind  at  the  time. 
On  the  first  day  of  the  trial  it  went  twenty-eight  miles  an  hour 
(without  any  attached  load),  and  did  one  mile  in  seven  seconds 
under  two  minutes."  Two  other  elegant  locomotives  were 
built  by  Ericsson,  but  they  failed  to  give  entire  satisfaction 
in  the  working,  and  this  field  of  construction  was  left  to 
Stephenson. 

In  1830  Captain  Ericsson  devised  the  centrifugal  fan  blower 


JOHN   ERICSSON.  379 

which  afterward  came  into  general  use  on  our  river  steamers; 
in  1834  he  took  out  a  patent  for  a  deep-sea  lead,  on  a  prin- 
ciple similar  to  the  one  employed  in  a  lead  designed  by  Sir 
William  Thomson.  He  received  a  prize  from  the  London 
Society  of  Arts  for  a  hydrostatic  weighing  machine.  He  ex- 
hibited at  the  International  Exhibition  in  1852,  and  received  a 
medal  for  them,  an  instrument  to  measure  distances  at  sea ;  an 
alarm  barometer  which  sounded  a  gong  in  warning  of  approach- 
ing storms;  and  a  pyrometer  which  measured  temperatures  up 
to  the  boiling  point  of  iron.  He  invented  an  instrument  for 
measuring  the  compressibility  of  water;  methods  of  propelling 
boats  on  canals,  one  of  which  has  been  applied  to  the  heavy 
grades  of  Swiss  mountain  railroads ;  a  water  meter,  a  centrif- 
ugal pump,  a  file-cutting  machine,  an  apparatus  for  making 
salt  from  brine,  and  numerous  applications  to  the  steam  engine, 
many  of  which  came  into  use,  while  others  were  abandoned. 
He  experimented  with  superheated  steam;  and  Mr.  Church 
says  that  he  designed  more  than  five  hundred  steam  engines. 

While  he  was  making  all  these  machines  he  was  also  experi- 
menting with  designs  for  a  caloric  engine.  His  researches  in 
this  direction  were  begun  with  the  "  flame  engine "  already 
mentioned.  He  contributed  a  paper  on  the  subject  to  the 
English  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  in  1826;  built  three  en- 
gines in  1827  based  on  the  principle  of  the  expansion  of  air; 
brought  out  a  completed  caloric  engine  in  1833,  to  which  he 
applied  improvements  as  his  investigations  continued  ;  received 
the  Rumford  medal  in  1856  for  his  researches  into  the  nature 
of  heat ;  and,  according  to  Mr.  Church,  spent  in  thirty  years, 
including  the  engines  for  his  caloric  ship,  more  than  a  quarter  of 
a  million  of  dollars  in  building  twenty-seven  experimental  en- 
gines. The  caloric  system  was  not  successful  when  applied  to 
the  propulsion  of  large  vessels  like  the  Ericsson,  although 
that  vessel  registered  a  speed  of  eight  and  attained  at  one 
time  a  speed  of  eleven  miles  an  hour,  but  for  lighter  work  it 
has  proved  very  practicable  and  efficient ;  the  smaller  machines 
have  been  extensively  used,  and  the  inventor  derived  large 
profits  from  them. 

The  first  experiment  with  the  screw  propeller  was  made  in 
1836  by  Captain  Ericsson,  in  conjunction  with  his  friend  Francis 
B.  Ogden,  of  New  Jersey,  United  States  consul  at  Liverpool. 
A  model  of  the  apparatus  was  built  and  tested  in  a  public  bath. 


380  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

Then  a  boat  forty  feet  long,  propelled  by  a  double  screw,  at- 
tained a  speed  of  ten  miles  an  hour  on  the  Thames.  The 
Lords  of  the  Admiralty  were  passengers  on  the  trial  trip ;  but 
seeing  was  not  believing  with  them,  and,  while  they  witnessed 
the  successful  performance  of  the  craft,  they  declared  that  no 
vessel  could  be  steered  if  the  power  was  applied  at  the  stern, 
and  would  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Captain  Robert  J. 
Stockton,  of  New  Jersey,  afterward  United  States  Senator,  was 
visiting  England  at  the  time  on  business  connected  with  the 
Delaware  and  Raritan  Canal,  and,  witnessing  the  performance 
of  the  propeller  vessel,  ordered  one  built  for  himself  and 
named  after  him.  It  was  sent  across  the  Atlantic,  and  when 
it  reached  New  York  the  freedom  of  the  city  was  given  to  its 
captain.  This  vessel  was  employed  for  many  years  in  the 
waters  of  the  United  States,  and,  passing  into  the  possession 
of  the  Messrs.  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  was  known  as  the 
tug  New  Jersey  till  1866,  when,  or  about  that  time,  it  was 
broken  up. 

On  the  invitation  of  Captain  Stockton,  Captain  Ericsson  re- 
signed, in  1839,  the  position  of  Superintending  Engineer  of  the 
Eastern  Counties  Railroad  in  England,  and  removed  to  the 
United  States.  By  the  aid  of  Captain  Stockton's  influence  he 
obtained  a  commission  to  build  a  steam-propeller  frigate,  the 
Princeton,  for  the  United  States  Navy.  Before  this  vessel  was 
finished,  in  1844,  his  screw  h^d  been  placed  in  forty-one  com- 
mercial vessels  of  the  United  States.  Another  new  and  valu- 
able principle  was  introduced  in  the  Princeton — that  of  apply- 
ing the  power  directly  to  th£  shaft  turning  the  screw.  Erics- 
son's propellers  with  direct-acting  engines  below  the  water  line 
were  also  applied  in  the  French  frigate  Pomona  in  1843,  and 
in  the  British  frigate  Amphion  in  1844.  The  Princeton  was 
fitted  with  a  twelve-inch  wrought-iron  gun,  forged  after  Erics- 
son's designs,  and  strengthened  with  bands,  which  had  been 
tested ;  and  with  a  heavier  gun  ordered  by  Captain  Stockton, 
called  the  Peacemaker.  This  gun,  when  fired — Ericsson's 
friends  claim,  against  his  advice — during  a  visit  of  President 
Tyler  and  members  of  his  Cabinet  to  the  Princeton,  February 
28,  1844,  burst,  killing  the  Secretaries  of  State  and  the  Navy, 
and  Colonel  Gardiner,  of  New  York. 

From  the  year  1826  Ericsson  had  entertained  the  idea  of 
contriving  an  "  impregnable  and  partially  submerged  instrument 


JOHN   ERICSSON.  381 

for  destroying  ships  of  war,"  and  had  a  plan  matured  for  it  in 
1835  ;  and  the  idea  of  protecting  war  engines  for  naval  pur- 
poses was  as  old  with  him,  he  wrote,  as  his  recollection.  He 
had  become  satisfied  also  that  armour  plates  that  a  vessel 
could  carry  could  not  be  forged  which  a  gun  could  not  be  con- 
structed to  penetrate  if  fired  directly  at  them.  From  these 
ideas  was  developed  the  plan  of  the  submerged  vessel  carrying 
a  turret,  which  was  embodied  in  the  Monitor.  In  August, 
1861,  he  proposed  to  President  Lincoln  to  build  a  vessel  for 
the  destruction  of  the  Confederate  war  craft,  declaring  that 
his  purpose  was  not  private  profit  but  only  to  serve  his  country. 
No  settled  purpose  or  idea  of  what  was  to  be  done  seems  to 
have  existed  in  Washington ;  but  Ericsson,  after  presenting 
his  plans,  was  directed  to  construct  the  Monitor  according  to 
them,  within  a  hundred  days.  The  result  of  the  first  experi- 
ment with  this  vessel  constitutes  one  of  the  sensational  incidents 
of  history.  The  Monitor's  guns  were  not  allowed  to  be 
charged  in  that  action  as  heavily  as  Ericsson  desired — they 
would  have  borne,  in  fact,  a  charge  three  times  as  great  as 
was  given  them — consequently  the  Merrimac  was  not  de- 
stroyed, as  it  probably  might  have  been.  Nine  other  moni- 
tors were  built  for  the  Government  by  Ericsson  and  his  busi- 
ness associates,  of  which  the  Dictator  was  completed,  as  he 
reported  to  the  Navy  Department,  with  a  displacement  of  a 
fraction  of  an  inch  less  than  he  had  calculated. 

In  1869  Captain  Ericsson  contracted  to  furnish  the  Spanish 
Government  with  thirty  gunboats  after  his  own  designs,  for 
use  against  Cuban  insurgent  blockade  runners.  They  were  all 
afloat  within  four  months,  two  months  before  the  time  they 
were  to  be  called  for  by  the  contract,  and  half  of  them  had 
their  engines  and  boilers  on  board.  Several  novel  features 
were  introduced  upon  them ;  they  proved  admirably  adapted 
to  their  purpose  ;  and  in  recognition  of  his  service  the  Span- 
ish Government  conferred  upon  Ericsson  the  decoration  of 
Isabel  la  Catolica. 

Captain  Ericsson's  ideas  of  a  war  vessel  for  submarine  work 
more  seaworthy  than  the  monitors  were  embodied  in  the  De- 
stroyer, which  was  launched  in  1878.  "  It  is  an  iron  vessel, 
one  hundred  and  thirty  feet  long,  seventeen  feet  wide,  and 
eleven  feet  deep,  protected  by  a  wrought-iron  breastwork  of 
great  strength  near  the  bow,"  carrying  a  submarine  sixteen- 


382  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

inch  gun  thirty  feet  long,  the  muzzle  of  which  projects  through 
an  opening  in  the  stem  near  the  bottom,  and  which  is  intended 
to  carry  a  fifteen-hundred-pound  projectile  charged  with  three 
hundred  pounds  of  guncotton.  The  vessel  is  intended  to 
attack  "bow  on,"  and  to  discharge  its  projectile  from  within 
three  hundred  feet  of  the  object  of  assault.  The  bill  for  the 
purchase  of  this  vessel  by  the  United  States,  although  it 
passed  the  Senate  in  1885,  failed  to  become  a  law. 

"  Three  distinct  purposes,"  says  Mr.  Church,  "  are  apparent 
in  Ericsson's  labours :  first,  to  improve  the  steam  engine  and 
extend  the  scope  of  its  application ;  next  to  discover  some 
more  economical  and  efficient  method  for  changing  the  mode 
of  motion  we  call  heat  into  the  mode  of  motion  we  call  power; 
third,  to  force  the  great  maritime  nations  to  declare  the  ocean 
neutral  ground,  by  making  naval  warfare  too  destructive  a 
pastime  to  be  indulged  in."  We  have  seen  how  he  worked 
out  the  first  of  these  ideas  in  his  numerous  adaptations  of  the 
steam  engine,  and  the  third  in  the  monitors  and  the  Destroyer. 
In  trying  to  make  the  second  idea  practical  he  devised  the 
caloric  engine  and  devoted  many  of  the  later  years  of  his  life 
to  the  investigation  of  the  solar  heat  and  of  methods  of  con- 
verting it  into  a  direct  source  of  mechanical  power.  He  devised 
and  constructed  a  solar  engine  in  1883,  which  was  described 
and  illustrated  in  Nature  (Vol.  XXIX,  p.  217),  and  laboured 
until  within  two  years  of  his  death  to  improve  and  perfect  it 
In  his  description  of  this  engine  he  showed  that  with  reflecting 
plates  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  by  one  hundred  and  eighty 
inches  and  a  steam  cylinder  of  six  by  eight  inches  he  could 
obtain  a  speed  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  turns  per  minute, 
with  an  absolute  pressure  on  the  working  piston  of  thirty-five 
pounds  per  square  inch. 

He  devoted  himself  regularly  and,  except  for  the  daily  walk 
and  gymnastics  for  his  health,  unremittingly  to  his  work.  Fit- 
ting up  his  office  and  workshop  in  Beach  Street,  N^w  York,  he 
occupied  his  whole  time  in  investigation,  experiment,  and  con- 
struction, refusing  to  be  interrupted,  and  shutting  himself  out 
from  general  visitors.  The  callers  who,  in  spite  of  his  well-known 
habits,  came  to  congratulate  him  on  his  eightieth  birthday 
were  not  received.  He  was  a  man  of  great  physical  strength, 
and  some  remarkable  stories  are  told  of  his  feats  in  lifting. 
In  one  of  them,  when  in  youth  he  raised  a  weight  of  six 


JOHN  ERICSSON.  383 

hundred  pounds,  he  thought  he  overstrained  himself,  and  he 
ascribed  to  it  certain  pains  in  his  back  from  which  he  suf- 
fered. 

He  participated  eagerly  in  physical  sports,  was  expert  in 
Swedish  gymnastics,  was  one  of  the  best  shots,  the  best  leaper, 
and  the  champion  wrestler  in  his  regiment,  and  was  famed  as 
an  athlete,  skater,  and  swimmer.  Mr.  E.  H.  Stoughton,  for- 
merly minister  to  Russia,  is  said  to  have  surprised  him  once 
at  sixty  years  of  age  standing  on  his  head,  to  prove  that  he 
had  not  lost  his  agility.  He  was  a  man  of  unbounded  benevo- 
lence, and  never  refused  the  petitions  of  those  who  came  to 
him  in  need. 

Domestic  life  was  not  for  him,  but  his  passion  for  work  so 
absorbed  him  that  he  did  not  regret  this.  In  the  course  of  his 
brief  service  in  the  Swedish  army  he  contracted  a  union  with 
a  Jemtland  girl  of  good  family,  by  whom  he  had  a  child.  The 
union  was  dissolved,  and  for  forty-eight  years  Ericsson  held 
no  communication  with  his  only  son,  for  whom,  nevertheless,  he 
seems  to  have  made  provision  as  soon  as  his  circumstances 
permitted.  In  1833  he  made  a  second  matrimonial  venture, 
marrying  an  English  lady  named  Amelia  Byam.  She  came  to 
America  with  him,  but  not  liking  the  country,  and  having  little 
companionship  with  her  husband,  she  soon  returned  to  Eng- 
land, and  died  without  ever  seeing  Ericsson  again.  There  was 
probably  no  ill  feeling  between  them,  for  when  the  Monitor 
made  Ericsson  famous  the  wife  wrote  him  of  her  gratification 
at  his  triumph. 

It  was  a  notable  coincidence  that  Ericsson  died  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  Monitor's  famous  fight.  In  the  year  follow- 
ing his  death,  on  August  23,  1890,  his  body  was  taken  on  board 
the  United  States  ship  Baltimore  and  conveyed  to  Sweden. 
All  the  United  States  naval  vessels  available  were  assembled 
in  New  York  harbour  and  took  part  in  the  ceremonies  attend- 
ing the  shipment  of  the  remains,  each  firing  a  national  salute 
as  the  Baltimore  passed  it  on  the  way  out  to  sea.  Arrived  in 
his  native  land,  Ericsson's  body  was  placed  in  a  chapel  that 
had  been  erected  for  it  in  the  cemetery  at  Filipstad. 

A  bronze  statue,  of  Ericsson,  eight  feet  high,  standing  on 
a  granite  pedestal  of  the  same  height,  was  placed  in  Battery 
Park,  by  the  city  of  New  York,  in  April,  1893.  The  unveiling, 
which  took  place  on  the  26th  day  of  the  month,  was  accom- 


384  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

panied  by  a  parade  of  Swedish  societies  and  appropriate  exer- 
cises. No  more  fitting  time  could  have  been  chosen  to  do 
honour  to  the  inventor  of  the  screw  propeller  and  the  Monitor, 
for  the  harbour  was  filled  with  picked  vessels  from  the  navies 
of  the  world,  assembled  for  the  Columbian  naval  parade  of 
the  following  day. 

While  his  literary  works'were  not  numerous,  Captain  Erics- 
son was  a  writer  of  force  and  ability,  with  imaginative  facul- 
ties that  might  have  been  developed  under  cultivation.  In 
his  youth,  and  while  engaged  in  his  surveying  work,  he  some- 
times, he  says,  "  wrote  poetry  to  the  wonderful  and  enchanting 
midnight  light  of  Norrland.  Connoisseurs  often  doubted  that 
it  came  from  the  second  lieutenant  and  surveyor  among  the 
mountains."  His  communications  to  the  periodical  press  on 
the  subjects  in  which  he  was  interested  were  clear  and  vigor- 
ous, and  always  acceptable. 

He  was  a  man  of  intense  patriotism,  which  he  manifested 
equally  toward  his  native  land,  although  he  never  returned  to 
it,  and  the  United  States,  the  country  of  his  adoption.  In  his 
studies  and  inventions  he  had  always  in  view  the  protection 
of  Sweden  against  the  aggressive  stronger  powers;  and  he 
gave  the  fruits  of  them  ungrudgingly  to  the  United  States — 
not  always  insisting  upon  his  reward  as  persistently  as  he 
had  a  right  to  do,  and  too  often  not  receiving  it,  or  receiving 
it  at  the  expense  of  delay  and  trouble  not  creditable  to  our 
Government.  His  gifts  to  Sweden,  after  he  became  prosperous, 
were  numerous  and  beautiful,  and  included  contributions  for 
the  relief  of  sufferers  from  famine  and  from  a  fire  at  Carlstad, 
and  for  a  benevolent  fund  for  the  aged  miners  and  miners' 
widows  of  his  native  province ;  a  subscription  to  the  Royal 
Library  of  Stockholm ;  the  guns  for  the  first  Swedish  monitor  ; 
and  a  gunboat  for  coast  defence.  In  1867  the  miners  of  his 
native  region  erected  in  front  of  the  house  in  which  he  was 
born,  at  their  own  expense,  a  large  granite  monument,  bearing 
the  inscription,  in  Swedish,  "  John  Ericsson  was  born  here  in 
1803." 

We  are  very  largely  indebted  for  the  detail  of  the  facts 
concerning  Captain  Ericsson's  inventions  to  the  excellent  biog- 
raphy of  him  by  Mr.  William  C.  Church,  in  two  volumes,  which 
was  published  in  1890. 


TIMOTHY   ABBOTT    CONRAD. 


TIMOTHY  ABBOT   CONRAD. 

1803-1877. 

IN  Philadelphia,  early  in  the  present  century,  there  was  a 
strongly  developed  taste  for  natural  history  pursuits,  and  eager 
collectors  of  the  local  fauna  naturally  became  so  acquainted 
and  thrown  together  that  the  formation  of  a  club  and  then  the 
organization  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  were  the 
logical  outcome.  Previous  to  this,  local  zoology  had  not 
been  overlooked,  as  the  quartos  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society  show,  and  Peale's  Museum  was  also  an  incentive 
to  natural  history  studies ;  but  all  was  more  or  less  chaotic 
until  the  academy  came  into  existence.  Then  fresh  enthu- 
siasm was  roused  and  every  member  became  a  collector,  and 
every  collector  a  describer  of  new  species.  To-day  these  old 
naturalists  would  irreverently  be  called  "  species  mongers  "  ; 
but  if  possibly  there  was  a  little  less  "  science "  in  their 
labours,  all  credit  is  due  them  for  excellent  intentions,  and 
every  evidence  of  careful,  correct,  and  valuable  work,  which 
has  not  had  to  be  done  over.  Looking  back  to  the  time 
when  Say,  Nuttall,  Rafinesque,  Lesueur,  Vanuxem,  Troost, 
Harlan,  Morton,  and  Conrad  filled  the  pages  of  the  acade- 
my's journal,  we  get  a  glimpse  of  a  remarkable  company,  who 
collected  eagerly  and  studied  carefully  their  "  finds "  and 
spicily  defended  their  positions  when  the  great  question  of 
"  priority  of  publication  "  came  up.  These  men  were  not 
given  to  theorizing  ;  evolution  was  not  in  their  vocabularies, 
although  we  see  at  times  some  evidence  of  looking  beyond  a 
species  to  its  real  significance.  De  Maillet's  strange  book  had 
been  translated  and  informally  discussed,  but,  as  a  general 
thing,  no  one  troubled  himself  with  Lamarck,  or  all  accepted 
Cuvier  without  question.  In  short,  these  Philadelphia  natural- 
ists gathered  specimens  all  day,  and  when  they  had  the 
material  sat  up  all  night  describing  new  species.  And  among 

385 


386  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

them  all  there  was  no  one  more  eager  in  the  quest  and  more 
popular  with  his  fellows  than  Solomon  White  Conrad,  the 
father  of  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch.  That  the  elder 
Conrad  was  a  remarkable  man  all  who  remember  him  assert 
without  reserve.  That  he  was  a  popular  one,  the  fact  that 
his  house  was  a  favourite  gathering  place  for  all  the  scientific 
notables  of  the  city  clearly  proves.  His  was  the  first  natural 
history  salon  opened  in  Philadelphia,  and,  being  a  matter  of  six 
days  in  the  week,  instead  of  at  stated  intervals,  was  fully  as 
popular  as  the  celebrated  Wistar  parties. 

A  descendant  of  Thones  Kunders  (subsequently  anglicized 
to  Dennis  Conrad),  who  left  Crefeld,  Germany,  July  24,  1683, 
and  settled  at  Germantown,  then  nine  miles  from  Philadelphia, 
but  now  in  the  city  limits,  like  his  American  ancestry,  Solomon 
W.  Conrad  was  a  strict  Quaker  and  an  approved  minister  of 
that  faith.  His  father  was  John  Conrad,  a  blacksmith,  and 
Solomon  was  born  July  31,  1779,  an^  died  October  2,  1831. 
Of  his  early  life  nothing  is  positively  known,  but  it  is  probable 
that  he  was  apprenticed  to  a  printer  or  bookseller.  It  is 
known  that  a  strong  fancy  for  scientific  study  was  early  de- 
veloped, and  the  fears  of  his  friends  were  realized  that  he 
would  not  be  successful  in  business,  because  of  attention 
divided  between  his  shop  and  his  cherished  specimens  at 
home.  His  partner  ruined  him  financially.  His  herbarium  is 
now  in  the  possession  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences.  As  evidence  that  the  country  was  more  attractive 
than  the  shop  on  Market  Street,  I  quote  the  following  from 
the  manuscript  journal  of  a  nephew  :  "  My  father,  .  .  .  with 
Solomon  Conrad,  would  take  long  walks  in  search  of  new 
specimens.  I  went  with  them  once  on  a  stroll  along  the  banks 
of  the  Schuylkill,  when  they  saw  at  the  same  time,  in  the 
shallow  bed  of  the  river,  a  fine  lot  of  mussels.  Both  rushed 
to  the  spot,  regardless  of  the  rough  stones  and  splashing  of 
the  muddy  water,  the  broad  tails  of  their  plain  coats  standing 
out  behind  and  their  arms  reaching  out  in  front,  eager  to  se- 
cure the  prize."  In  the  spring  of  1829  Solomon  Conrad, 
who  at  that  time  had  acquired  a  wide  reputation  as  a  mineral- 
ogist and  botanist,  was  elected  Professor  of  Botany  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  and  delivered,  May  ist,  his  intro- 
ductory address.  In  The  Friend  of  fifth  month,  9,  1829,  the 
late  Roberts  Vaux,  of  Philadelphia,  gives  the  following  es- 


TIMOTHY  ABBOT   CONRAD.  387 

timate  of  the  lecture  :  "  With  a  succinct  review  of  the  history  of 
botany  he  very  happily  blended  some  biographical  notices  of 
the  distinguished  men  to  whom  the  science  owed  its  origin  and 
illustration.  He  traced  with  great  acuteness  and  perspicuity 
the  analogy  of  vegetable  and  animal  life,  admitting  the  limit 
of  human  knowledge.  Every  view  that  he  furnished  of  the 
subject,  upon  which  he  is  so  well  qualified  to  impart  instruc- 
tion in  all  its  details,  was  just  and  forcible,  while  the  simplicity 
of  his  manner  and  chasteness  of  his  style  were  by  no  means 
the  least  interesting  traits  of  the  lecturer."  The  venerable 
Frederick  Fraley,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  recently  informed  me 
that  he  was  present  at  the  introductory  lecture  referred  to, 
and  that  Mr.  Vaux  had  in  nowise  allowed  his  enthusiasm  to 
outrun  his  discretion. 

On  June  21,  1803,  when  his  father  was  but  twenty-four 
years  old,  Timothy  Abbott  Conrad  was  born.  His  mother  was 
then  staying  at  the  home  of  her  father,  four  miles  from  Tren- 
ton, in  Burlington  County,  New  Jersey.  To  this  birthplace 
young  Conrad  became  so  strongly  attached  that  he  yearly  made 
pilgrimage  thereto,  even  when  no  representative  of  the  family 
lived  there.  In  his  purely  literary  writings  he  so  frequently 
refers  to  the  place  that  he  was  once  twitted  about  it,  but  with- 
out effect. 

"Timothy,"  remarked  an  old  Friend,  "was  thy  grandfather 
the  only  man  who  ever  lived  in  the  country  ?  " 

"  Other  men  exist  in  the  country,  but  no  one  else  lived  like 
my  grandfather,"  he  replied. 

Brought  up,  when  with  his  parents,  in  so  scientific  an  at- 
mosphere, and  when  at  his  birthplace  so  delightfully  sur- 
rounded not  only  by  congenial  kinsfolk,  but  Nature  in  her 
most  attractive  guise,  it  is  little  wonder  that  Conrad  became 
a  naturalist.  Mr.  Fraley  tells  me  that,  when  a  youth  in  early 
teens,  Conrad  was  the  "  president  "  of  an  "  Academy  of  Sci- 
ence"  of  which  he,  Mr.  Fraley,  was  "secretary,"  and  that  it 
was  conducted  with  all  the  decorum  and  good  faith  of  the 
institution  after  which  it  was  modelled. 

Conrad  was  educated  at  select  schools  under  the  superin- 
tendence of  Friends,  but  really  educated  himself,  so  far  as  the 
"  higher  branches  "  were  concerned,  acquiring  without  a  teacher 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  Latin,  Greek,  and  French.  His  skill 
in  drawing  was  remarkable  and  early  developed.  He  not  only 


388  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

made  all  his  own  illustrations,  but  did  considerable  for  others, 
as  the  shells,  seaweed,  and  other  small  objects  on  some  of  Au- 
dubon's  plates  of  birds.  Before  seriously  taking  up  the  special 
studies  that  subsequently  made  him  famous,  he  wrote  many 
sketches  of  a  popular-  character,  and  occasionally  drifted  into 
verse.  His  father  being  a  publisher  and  printer,  Conrad  en- 
tered the  establishment  as  a  clerk,  reluctantly  probably,  and 
there  learned  the  printer's  art,  and  when  his  father  died,  in 
1831,  he  continued  the  business  for  a  short  time,  but  the  love 
of  natural  history  was  too  strong  to  be  overcome,  and  he 
gave  up  the  shop  and  its  belongings.  Because  of  a  prefer- 
ence for  walking  afield  to  attending  religious  services,  a  com- 
mittee of  Friends  called  upon  Conrad,  and,  not  accepting  his 
explanation,  they  directed  his  name  to  be  stricken  off  their 
roll  of  membership.  Conrad  did  not  like  their  action,  and 
probably  it  is  due  to  this  that  he  seldom  afterward  attended 
any  religious  gathering,  occasionally  dropping  into  some  coun- 
try Quaker  meeting,  but  always,  as  he  said,  for  old  times'  sake 
and  not  spiritual  profit. 

In  1831  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Academy 
of  Natural  Sciences,  and,  some  years  after,  of  the  Amer- 
ican Philosophical  Society.  Of  many  foreign  learned 
societies  he  was  a  correspondent,  but,  keeping  no  record  of 
such  elections,  the  names  and  dates  of  election  have  been 
lost. 

Conrad's  first  volume  bears  date  of  1831,  and  has  the  fol- 
lowing title  :  American  Marine  Conchology,  or  Descriptions 
and  Coloured  Figures  of  the  Shells  of  the  Atlantic  Coast. 
Of  this  little  volume,  printed  for  the  author,  Conrad  says  in 
his  preface,  "  it  is  designed  to  supply  a  deficiency  which  has 
long  been  felt  by  the  cultivators  of  American  natural  his- 
tory." The  work  contains  seventeen  plates,  all  drawn  by  the 
author,  and  coloured  by  hand  by  his  sister.  In  1834  Conrad 
published  New  Fresh-water  Shells  of  the  United  States,  with 
Lithographic  Illustrations  and  a  Monograph  of  the  Genus 
Anculotus  of  Say.  Also,  A  Synopsis  of  the  American  Naiades  ; 
Philadelphia,  Judah  Dobson,  108  Chestnut  Street,  May  3,  1834. 
The  full  title  of  this  little  volume,  with  precise  date  of  pub- 
lication (not  much  larger  than  the  title  is  long)  is  given,  be- 
cause even  then  questions  of  priority  had  arisen,  and  others 
laid  claim  to  some  of  Conrad's  species.  This  unhappy  wran- 


TIMOTHY  ABBOT  CONRAD.  389 

gling  was  kept  up  for  many  years.  Prof.  Ball  refers  to  this,  as 
we  shall  see  further  on,  as  "  numerous  controversies,  which  are 
now  ancient  history."  Conrad's  own  version  should  be  given. 
He  claimed  that  the  editions  of  his  publications  were  largely 
bought  up  and  destroyed  by  a  worker  in  the  same  field,  and 
this  explains  the  rarity  of  some  of  his  writings.  In  the  preface 
of  the  little  volume  above  mentioned  the  author  says :  "  While 
residing  in  the  mansion  of  my  kind  and  hospitable  friend, 
Judge  Tait,  of  Claiborne,  Alabama,  where  I  was  employed  in 
collecting  the  organic  remains  of  the  vicinity,  I  occasionally 
made  excursions  up  and  down  the  Alabama  for  the  purpose  of 
procuring  fresh-water  shells.  I  have  succeeded  in  obtaining 
some  species  which  I  believe  to  be  new,  and  hope  to  fix  by 
accurate  delineations  and  descriptions."  The  result  was  the 
little  book,  which  is  dedicated  to  the  late  Charles  A.  Poulson, 
of  Philadelphia,  a  prominent  conchologist  in  his  day,  and  one 
of  Conrad's  financial  backers  in  his  several  expeditions  south 
in  search  of  both  recent  and  fossil  shells.  In  1834,  in  the 
Journal  (old  series)  of  the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences,  Volume  VII,  Conrad  published  Observations  on  the 
Tertiary  and  More  Recent  Formations  of  a  Portion  of  the 
United  States,  which  appears  to  have  been  his  first  com- 
munication to  that  body.  In  1841  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Academy  were  commenced,  and  a  new  series  of  the  Journal  in 
quarto.  In  the  former,  from  Volume  I  to  Volume  XXXVI, 
Conrad's  contributions  appear  in  every  year,  the  articles  vary- 
ing from  two  to  a  dozen  in  number.  In  the  first  four  volumes 
of  the  new  Journal  he  has  eleven  contributions,  all  of  which 
are  profusely  illustrated.  In  1836  Conrad  published  Monog- 
raphy  of  the  Family  Unionidse,  or  "Naiades  of  Lamarck 
(fresh-water  bivalve  shells),  of  North  America.  Illustrated 
by  Figures  drawn  on  Stone  from  Nature.  Philadelphia : 
J.  Dobson,  1836.  This  work,  like  the  Marine  Conchology, 
was  never  finished.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  magnitude  of  the 
work  had  not  occurred  to  him  at  the  time,  or  that  he  was 
soon  tired  of  any  subject  that  he  took  up,  but  the  real  diffi- 
culty was  a  want  of  financial  support.  There  were  never 
enough  subscribers  to  meet  the  expense  of  publication.  At 
this  time,  too,  his  health  was  very  bad,  and  he  seemed  to  lose 
all  interest  in  every  undertaking.  "  A  period  of  moping  would 
usually  end  in  his  writing  some  verses  which  nobody  would 


390  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

praise,  and  this  seemed  sufficiently  to  nettle  him,  to  rouse  him 
thoroughly,  and  he  would  become  again  enthusiastic  in  the 
matter  of  shells  and  fossils." 

In  1837  Conrad  was  appointed  geologist  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  and  after  resigning  the  position  remained  as  paleon- 
tologist of  the  survey  until  1842.  "  He  prepared  official  re- 
ports on  the  fossils  collected  by  the  United  States  exploring 
expedition  under  Wilkes;  by  Lieutenant  Lynch's  expedition 
to  the  Dead  Sea ;  by  the  Mexican  Boundary  Survey,  and  some 
of  the  surveys  for  a  railroad  route  to  the  Pacific  undertaken 
under  the  supervision  of  the  War  Department.  Many  papers 
were  written  by  him  on  the  Tertiary  and  Cretaceous  geology 
and  paleontology  of  the  eastern  United  States,  and  published  in 
the  American  Journal  of  Science,  the  Bulletin  of  the  National 
Institution,  the  American  Journal  of  Conchology,  Kerr's  Geo- 
logical Report  on  North  America,  and  other  publications.  A 
list  of  Conrad's  papers,  which  covers  most  of  those  bearing  on 
paleontological  topics,  may  be  found  in  Miscellaneous  Publi- 
cations of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey  of  the  Terri- 
tories, No.  10 ;  Bibliography  of  North  American  Invertebrate 
Paleontology,  by  Drs.  C.  A.  White  and  H.  Alleyne  Nicholson 
— Washington,  Interior  Department,  1878.  It  contains  a  hun- 
dred and  twelve  titles  "  (Dall). 

In  1832  Conrad  published  Fossil  Shells  of  the  Tertiary 
Formations  of  North  America.  Illustrated  by  Figures  drawn 
on  Stone  from  Nature.  Vol.  I.  Philadelphia,  1832.  It  is  dedi- 
cated to  Samuel  George  Morton,  M.  D.  In  1838  Conrad  pub- 
lished Fossils  of  the  Tertiary  Formations  of  the  United  States. 
Illustrated  by  Figures  drawn  from  Nature.  Philadelphia :  J. 
Dobson.  These  are  known  generally  as  the  Eocene  and  Mio- 
cene volumes,  and  both,  as  original  editions,  are  extremely 
rare.  They  have  recently  been  reprinted  in  facsimile,  the 
former  by  Mr.  G.  D.  Harris,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  the  latter  by  the  Wagner  Free  Insti- 
tute, under  the  editorial  supervision  of  William  H.  Dall,  of  the 
National  Museum.  In  his  introduction  Prof.  Dall  says :  "  Stu- 
dents of  the  American  Miocene  and  the  later  Tertiary  deposits 
of  the  New  World  are  well  aware  of  the  importance  to  them  of 
Conrad's  work,  usually  referred  to  by  the  title  of  The  Medial 
Tertiary.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  scarcity  of  this 
work  and  its  predecessor,  the  Eocene  volume,  is  the  chief 


TIMOTHY  ABBOT   CONRAD.  391 

cause  of  the  delay  in  investigating  our  rich  and  interesting 
Tertiary  beds." 

Prof.  Ball,  in  considering  Conrad  as  a  paleontologist,  re- 
marks as  follows  :  "  Mr.  Conrad  had  several  peculiarities ;  he 
wrote  his  letters  and  labels  frequently  on  all  sorts  of  scraps  of 
paper,  generally  without  date  or  location.  He  was  naturally 
careless  or  unmethodical,  and  his  citations  of  other  authors' 
works  can  not  safely  be  trusted  without  verification,  and  are 
usually  incomplete.  He  had  a  very  poor  memory,  and  on 
several  occasions  had  redescribed  his  own  species.  This  de- 
fect increased  with  age,  and,  while  no  question  of  wilful  mis- 
statement  need  arise,  made  it  impossible  to  place  implicit  con- 
fidence in  his  own  recollections  of  such  matters  as  dates  of 
publication.  He  himself  says  in  a  characteristic  letter  to  F.  B. 

Meek,  written  in  July,  1863  :  '  I  go  on  Monday  to  help  H 

ferret  out  my  skulking  species  of  Palaeozoic  shells.  May  the 
recording  angel  help  me !  God  and  I  knew  them  once,  and 
the  Almighty  may  know  still.  A  man's  memory  is  no  part  of 
his  soul.' 

"  In  spite  of  this  constitutional  defect,  Conrad  had  an  acute 
and  observant  eye,  and  an  excellent,  if  sometimes  hasty,  judg- 
ment on  matters  of  geology  and  classification.  He  was  in 
advance  of  his  time  in  discriminating  genera,  and  in  field 
researches  and  work  on  the  specimens  showed  more  than 
ordinary  capacity.  In  those  branches  of  his  work  which 
required  knowledge  of  literature  and  systematic  research  he 
took  less  interest  and  pains. 

"Like  many  shy  people  he  was  brought  rather  than  ven- 
tured into  numerous  controversies,  which  are  now  ancient 
history,  and  need  not  be  further  alluded  to.  But  the  sketch 
just  given  will  enable  readers  to  understand  the  origin  of 
much  that  is  irritating  to  those  who  are  obliged  to  rely  upon 
Conrad's  work  and  find  in  it  slips  and  errors  so  obvious  that 
they  seem  unpardonable.  He  had  the  defects  of  his  qualities, 
but  whether  for  good  or  evil  he  was  the  principal  worker  in 
the  field  of  Tertiary  geology  in  America  for  many  years.  He 
has  left  a  voluminous  literature,  and  neither  his  faults  nor  his 
virtues  can  by  any  method  be  ignored." 

When  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  was  published,  Conrad 
became  intensely  interested  in  the  discussions  that  wonderful 
book  provoked.  He  did  not  take  the  theory  up  as  subject- 


392 


PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


matter  for  an  essay,  but  contented  himself  with  innumerable 
notes  and  memoranda  that  I  found  on  loose  slips  of  paper 
after  his  death.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  to  evolution;  con- 
sidered Agassiz  the  world's  greatest  naturalist,  and  predicted 
that  Darwin's  "  wild  speculations  "  would  soon  be  forgotten. 
Every  geological  age  came,  Conrad  held,  to  a  complete  close, 
and  the  life  of  the  succeeding  one  was  a  wholly  new  creation. 
These  utterly  crude  and  untenable  views  he  held  to  the  last. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  the  memory  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  to  pass  over  without  notice  his  characteristics  as  a 
man  and  author.  Conrad  was  something  besides  a  profound 
paleontologist.  This  his  friends  well  knew.  He  was  of  small 
stature,  thin  and  homely,  yet  he  had,  as  an  intimate  friend  re- 
cently said,  a  refined  countenance.  There  was  a  kindly  light 
in  his  eyes  that  words  can  not  describe  nor  the  cunning  of  the 
artist  depict.  I  have  said  "  homely  "  ;  this  on  his  own  author- 
ity, for  in  his  poem  The  Watermelon  he  declares: 

"  The  poet  may  sing  of  the  Orient  spices, 

Or  Barbary's  dates  in  their  palmy  array, 

But  the  huge  rosy  melon  in  cold  juicy  slices, 

Is  the  Helicon  font  of  a  hot  summer  day, 

"Where  I  bathe  the  dry  wings  of  the  spirit,  and  sprinkling 

Sweet  drops  on  the  pathway  of  dusty  old  Care, 
I  hold  Father  Time  from  his  villainous  wrinkling 
Of  features  that  never  had  graces  to  spare." 

As  a  conversationist  Conrad  had  few  superiors,  but  a  weak- 
ness of  his  voice  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  be  heard,  and  it 
was  only  when  with  two  or  three  intimate  friends  that  this 
quality  shone  out.  He  avoided  large  gatherings  and  never 
spoke  in  public.  He  had  a  keen  sense  of  humour  and  was  an 
inveterate  punster.  His  memory  was  "  very  bad  "  scientifical- 
ly, says  Prof.  Ball,  but  it  was  remarkably  good  so  far  as  poetry 
was  concerned,  and  when  walking  alone  in  the  country  he 
would  repeat  aloud  long  passages  from  the  works  of*  his 
favourite  authors.  His  fondness  for  poetry  led  him  to  writing 
verses,  some  of  which  were  printed  in  the  Philadelphia  papers 
as  early  as  1828,  and  his  latest  effort  bears  date  of  1874.  In 
1848  Conrad  published  The  New  Diogenes,  a  Cynical  Poem. 
This  is  well  described  in  the  subtitle.  It  consists  of  some 
twenty-five  hundred  lines  of  fault-finding.  The  edition  was 


TIMOTHY  ABBOT   CONRAD. 


393 


very  small  and  is  not  yet  exhausted.  In  1871  his  nephew,  Dr. 
C.  C.  Abbott,  undertook  to  bring  together  the  scattered  short 
poems,  and  found  thirty-two  of  these,  mostly  in  the  corners  of 
newspapers  and  two  in  manuscript.  The  little  volume  was 
"privately  printed."  It  bears  the  title,  A  Geological  Vision 
and  Other  Poems.  Trenton,  N.  J.,  1871. 

In  his  nonscientific  writings  Conrad  invites  a  comparison 
with  Thoreau,  but,  while  loving  the  outdoor  world  as  devoted- 
ly, he  always  had  an  eye  to  physical  comfort,  and  preferred  at 
the  end  of  a  long  tramp,  a  good  bed  at  a  tavern  to  sleeping 
out  of  doors.  So  too,  probably,  did  Thoreau,  but  then  to  say 
so  does  not  sound  so  prettily  in  a  book. 

Timothy  Abbott  Conrad  died  in  Trenton,  N.  J.,  August  9, 
1877,  the  last  of  the  prominent  group  of  early  Philadelphia 
naturalists,  who  paved  the  way  for  the  more  philosophical 
biologists  of  the  present  day. 


26 


WILLIAM   STARLING  SULLIVANT. 

1803-1873. 

"  IN  him  we  lose  the  most  accomplished  bryologist  which 
this  country  has  produced,  and  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  he 
leaves  behind  anywhere  a  superior."  This  is  high  praise  and 
its  value  is  enhanced  by  its  coming  from  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  who 
certainly  knew  whereof  he  spoke. 

William  Starling  Sullivant  was  born  Jan.  15,  1803,  at  the 
little  village  of  Franklinton,  then  a  frontier  settlement  in  the 
midst  of  primitive  forest,  near  the  site  of  the  present  city  of 
Columbus.  He  was  the  eldest  of  the  four  children  of  Lucas  Sul- 
livant, a  Virginian,  and  Sarah  (Starling),  his  wife.  His  father 
had  been  commissioned  by  the  Government  to  survey  a  district 
in  the  Northwestern  Territory  lying  in  the  centre  of  what  is 
now  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  he  early  purchased  a  large  tract 
of  land,  bordering  on  the  Scioto  River,  and  near  by  if  not  in- 
cluding the  site  afterward  chosen  for  the  capital  of  the  State. 

The  early  life  of  William  Sullivant  was  therefore  that  of  the 
frontier,  with  its  mixture  of  hardships  and  opportunities.  At 
a  time  when  the  hominy  mortar  and  the  hand-grater  served  to 
furnish  coarse  meal  for  bread,  and  grist  mills  were  few  and  far 
apart,  young  William,  mounted  astride  of  a  bag  of  wheat  on 
one  horse  and  leading  another  on  which  also  was  strapped  a 
well-filled  bag,  was  often  sent  on  a  journey  along  the  blazed 
bridle-path  through  the  forest  to  procure  flour  for  the  family. 
These  expeditions  frequently  occupied  two  or  three  days  wait- 
ing for  the  grist,  and  necessitated  sleeping  in  the  mill  wrapped 
in  a  blanket,  where  he  was  fortunate  who  had  a  pile  of  corn  or 
wheat  for  his  couch,  instead  of  the  hard  floor.  But  all  this, 
together  with  the  athletic  sports  of  the  frontier  settlement, 
served  to  give  him  the  fine  physical  development  which  was 
often  remarked  in  his  adult  years.  He  was  also  one  of  the 
party  on  some  of  his  father's  shorter  surveying  expeditions, 


WILLIAM   STARLING   SULLIVANT. 


WILLIAM   STARLING  SULLIVANT.  395 

thus  gaining  knowledge  that  he  was  soon  destined  to  put  in 
practice. 

He  was  sent  to  a  private  school  in  Kentucky,  and  entering 
the  Ohio  University  when  that  institution  opened,  received 
there  the  rudiments  of  a  collegiate  education.  He  was  then 
transferred  to  Yale  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in 
1823.  His  father  dying  in  the  same  year,  he  was  obliged  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  studying  a  profession  in  order  to  take 
charge  of  the  large  family  estate.  The  property  consisted  of 
lands,  mills,  etc.,  and  required  much  and  varied  attention. 
The  care  of  it  required  him  to  become  a  surveyor  and  a  prac- 
tical engineer,  and  to  be  much  engaged  in  business  for  the 
greater  part  of  his  life.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Ohio 
Stage  Company,  whose  operations  covered  a  wide  field,  and 
before  the  introduction  of  railroads  afforded  the  best  accom- 
modations and  facilities  to  the  travelling  public.  He  was  one 
of  the  original  stockholders  and  directors  of  the  Clinton  Bank, 
and  for  a  time  its  president. 

Mr.  Sullivant  was  not  one  of  those  whose  predilection  for 
science  appeared  at  ^an  early  age.  He  was  nearly  thirty  years 
old  and  his  youngest  brother,  Joseph,  was  already  somewhat 
proficient  in  botany,  conchology,  and  ornithology  before  his 
interest  in  natural  history  was  aroused.  He  had  married  Miss 
Jane,  daughter  of  Alexander  K.  Marshall,  of  Kentucky,  and 
niece  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  and  was  living  in  his  suburban 
residence  in  a  rich  floral  district.  His  wife  had  died  within  a 
year  after  marriage,  leaving  him  an  infant  daughter. 

His  first  scientific  observations  were  upon  the  birds.  When 
his  attention  was  directed  to  botany,  by  his  brother  Joseph, 
he  took  up  the  subject  with  the  determination  to  acquire  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  it.  "  He  collected  and  carefully 
studied,"  says  Prof.  Gray  in  the  memoir  already  quoted 
from,  *  "  the  plants  of  the  central  part  of  Ohio,  made  neat 
sketches  of  the  minuter  parts  of  many  of  them,  especially  of 
the  grasses  and  sedges,  entered  into  communication  with  the 
leading  botanists  of  the  country,  and  in  1840  he  published  A 
Catalogue  of  Plants,  Native  or  Naturalized,  in  the  Vicinity  of 
Columbus,  Ohio  (63  pages),  to  which  he  added  a  few  pages  of 
valuable  notes.  His  only  other  direct  publication  in  phanerog- 

*  Read  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  April  22,  1875. 


396  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

amous  botany  is  a  short  article  upon  three  new  plants  which 
he  had  discovered  in  that  district,  contributed  to  the  Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Science  and  Arts  in  the  year  1842.  The 
observations  which  he  continued  to  make  were  communi- 
cated to  his  correspondents  and  friends,  the  authors  of  the 
Flora  of  North  America,  then  in  progress. 

"As  soon  as  the  flowering  plants  of  his  district  had  ceased 
to  afford  him  novelty,  he  turned  to  the  mosses,  in  which  he 
found  abundant  scientific  occupation,  of  a  kind  well  suited  to 
his  bent  for  patient  and  close  observation,  scrupulous  accu- 
racy, and  nice  discrimination.  His  first  publication  in  his 
chosen  department,  the  Musci  Alleghanienses,  was  accompanied 
by  the  specimens  themselves  of  mosses  and  hepaticae  collected 
in  a  botanical  expedition  through  the  Alleghany  Mountains 
from  Maryland  to  Georgia,  in  the  summer  of  1843,  the  writer  of 
this  notice  being  his  companion.  The  specimens  were  not  only 
critically  determined,  but  exquisitely  prepared  and  mounted, 
and  with  letterpress  of  great  perfection  ;  the  whole  forming 
two  quarto  volumes,  which  well  deserve  the  encomium  be- 
stowed by  Pritzel  in  his  Thesaurus.  It  was  not  put  on  sale, 
but  fifty  copies  were  distributed  with  a  free  hand  among  bryol- 
ogists  and  others  who  would  appreciate  it. 

"  In  1846  Mr.  Sullivant  communicated  to  the  American  Acad- 
emy the  first  part,  and  in  1849  the  second  part,  of  his  Con- 
tributions to  the  Bryology  and  Hepaticology  of  North  Amer- 
ica, which  appeared  one  in  the  third,  the  other  in  the  fourth 
volume  (new  series)  of  the  academy's  Memoirs,  each  with 
five  plates  from  the  author's  own  admirable  drawings.  These 
plates  were  engraved  at  his  own  expense,  and  were  generously 
given  to  the  academy. 

"When  the  second  edition  of  Gray's  Manual  of  the  Botany 
of  the  Northern  United  States  was  in  preparation,  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant was  asked  to  contribute  to  it  a  compendious  account  of 
the  musci  and  hepatica  of  the  region,  which  he  did,  in  the  space 
of  about  one  hundred  pages,  generously  adding,  at  his  sole 
charge,  eight  copperplates  crowded  with  illustrations  of  the 
details  of  the  genera  ;  thus  enhancing  vastly  the  value  of  his 
friend's  work,  and  laying  a  foundation  for  the  general  study 
of  bryology  in  the  United  States,  which  then  and  thus  began. 
So  excellent  are  these  illustrations,  both  in  plan  and  execution, 
that  Schimper,  then  the  leading  bryologist  of  the  Old  World, 


WILLIAM   STARLING   SULLIVANT.  397 

and  a  most  competent  judge,  since  he  has  published  hundreds 
of  figures  in  his  Bryologia  Europ&a,  not  only  adopted  the  same 
plan  in  his  Synopsis  of  the  European  Mosses,  but  also  the 
very  figures  themselves  (a  few  of  which  were,  however,  origi- 
nally his  own),  whenever  they  would  serve  his  purpose,  as  was 
the  case  with  most  of  them. 

"  A  separate  edition  was  published  of  this  portion  of  the 
Manual  under  the  title  of  The  Musci  and  Hepaticae  of  the 
United  States  East  of  the  Mississippi  River  (New  York,  1856, 
imperial  octavo),  upon  thick  paper,  and  with  proof  impres- 
sions directly  from  the  copperplates.  This  exquisite  volume 
was  placed  on  sale  at  far  less  than  its  cost,  and  copies  .are  now 
of  great  rarity  and  value.  It  was  with  regret  that  the  author 
of  the  Manual  omitted  this  cryptogamic  portion  from  the  en- 
suing editions,  and  only  with  the  understanding  that  a  separate 
Species  Muscorum,  or  Manual  for  the  Mosses  of  the  whole 
United  States,  should  replace  it."  This  work  Mr.  Sullivant 
was  about  to  prepare  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Sullivant  married  Miss  Eliza  G.  Wheeler,  of  New  York, 
a  lady  of  rare  accomplishments,  who  became  a  zealous  and 
acute  bryologist,  and  ably  assisted  her  husband  in  his  scien- 
tific work  until  her  death,  of  cholera,  in  1850  or  1851.  Her 
botanical  services  were  commemorated  by  Schimper  in  the 
name  of  the  Ohio  moss,  Hypnum  Sullivantice.  Two  daughters 
and  a  son  were  the  fruit  of  this  marriage. 

In  1848  Mr.  Sullivant  secured  the  co-operation  of  the  ac- 
complished botanist  Leo  Lesquereux,  by  whose  labours  his 
undertakings  were  substantially  promoted.  A  characteristic 
feature  of  his  scientific  work  was  the  issuing  of  sets  of  speci- 
mens, mounted  on  leaves  with  printed  labels,  and  bound  into  a 
volume  having  a  title-page,  index,  etc.  Specimens  had  accom- 
panied Mr.  Sullivant's  text  in  the  Musci  Alleghanienses,  and 
now,  from  the  ample  stores  collected  by  him  and  Lesquereux, 
cr  otherwise  acquired,  fifty-six  sets  of  about  three  hundred  and 
sixty  species  each  were  made  up,  and  all,  except  a  few  copies 
for  gratuitous  distribution,  were  placed  on  sale  at  less  than 
cost,  for  the  benefit  of  his  esteemed  associate.  The  title  of 
the  volume  was  Musci  Boreali  Americani  quorum  specimina  exsic- 
cati  ediderunt  W.  S.  Sullivant  et  L.  Lesquereux ;  1856.  The 
value  of  the  work  ensured  the  speedy  sale  of  the  edition.  A 
similar  but  larger  collection,  containing  between  five  and  six 


398  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

hundred  species,  many  of  them  recently  gathered  in  California 
by  Dr.  Bolander,  was  issued  in  1865.  The  sets  were  disposed 
of  with  the  same  unequalled  liberality  as  before  displayed. 
Still  later,  Mr.  Sullivant  aided  his  friend  Mr.  Austin  both  in 
the  study  of  his  material  and  in  the  publication  of  his  Musci 
Appalachiani. 

In  his  Musci  Cubenses,  which  appeared  in  1861,  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant named  the  species  of  Charles  Wright's  earlier  acquisitions 
in  Cuba  and  described  the  new  ones.  These  mosses  were  also 
distributed  in  sets  by  the  collector.  His  researches  upon  later 
and  more  extensive  collections  by  Mr.  Wright,  in  which  many 
new  species  were  indicated,  were  left  in  the  form  of  notes 
and  pencil  sketches  at  his  death.  The  same  is  true  of  an 
earlier  collection,  made  by  Fendler  in  Venezuela. 

Mr.  Sullivant  was  several  times  called  upon  to  work  up  the 
mosses  gathered  by  Government  exploring  expeditions.  Thus 
the  Bryology  of  Rodgers'  United  States  North  Pacific  Explor- 
ing Expedition  was  early  prepared  for  publication  by  him  in 
the  most  elaborate  manner.  But,  from  causes  over  which  he 
had  no  control,  it  has  never  been  published,  although  brief 
characters  of  the  principal  new  species  have  seen  the  light. 
The  fact  that  Sullivant's  exquisite  drawings  of  these  species 
were  not  promptly  engraved  and  given  to  the  scientific  world 
is  especially  to  be  regretted. 

In  the  case  of  the  South  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition, 
under  Commodore  Wilkes,  the  volume  on  the  mosses  was  not 
published  in  his  lifetime,  but  Mr.  Sullivant  issued  a  separate 
edition  of  his  portion  of  it  in  1859.  It  forms  a  sumptuous 
imperial  folio,  the  letterpress  having  been  made  up  into  large 
pages,  and  printed  on  paper  matching  that  used  for  the  twenty- 
six  plates.  The  fourth  volume  of  the  Pacific  Railroad  Reports 
contains  Sullivant's  descriptions  of  the  mosses  collected  in 
Whipple's  Exploration,  occupying  about  a  dozen  pages,  and 
accompanied  by  ten  admirable  plates  of  new  species. 

The  Icones  Muscorum,  however,  is  Mr.  Sullivant's  crowning 
work.  It  was  issued  in  1864,  and  consists  of  "  Figures  and 
Descriptions  of  most  of  those  Mosses  peculiar  to  Eastern 
North  America  which  have  not  been  heretofore  figured,"  form- 
ing an  imperial  octavo  volume  with  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine  copperplates.  "The  letterpress  and  the  plates,"  says 
Prof.  Gray,  u  (upon  which  last  alone  several  thousand  dollars 


WILLIAM   STARLING   SULLIVANT. 

and  immense  pains  were  expended)  are  simply  exquisite  and 
wholly  unrivalled;  and  the  scientific  character  is  acknowl- 
edged to  be  worthy  of  the  setting."  Most  of  the  time  which 
Mr.  Sullivant  could  devote  to  science  in  the  last  few  years  of 
his  life  was  given  to  the  preparation  of  a  second  or  supple- 
mentary volume  of  the  I  cones.  The  plates  were  finished,  the 
descriptions  partly  written  out,  and  it  was  to  have  been  printed 
in  the  spring  in  which  he  died. 

Mr.  Sullivant  was  attacked  with  pneumonia  in  January, 
1873,  about  the  time  of  his  seventieth  birthday,  and,  although 
making  a  partial  recovery,  died  from  the  effects  of  the  disease 
April  30.  He  had  married  Caroline  E.  Button,  who  survived 
him.  Four  sons  and  two  daughters  were  born  to  them. 

He  bequeathed  all  his  bryological  books  and  his  exceed- 
ingly rich  and  important  collections  and  preparations  of 
mosses  to  the  Gray  Herbarium  at  Harvard  University.  The 
rest  of  his  botanical  library,  his  choice  microscopes,  and  other 
collections,  were  left  to  the  State  Scientific  and  Agricultural 
College,  then  recently  established  at  Columbus,  and  to  the 
Starling  Medical  College,  founded  by  his  uncle,  of  which  he 
was  himself  the  senior  trustee. 

The  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  elected  Mr. 
Sullivant  to  membership  in  1845  ;  he  was  also  an  associate  of 
the  other  chief  scientific  societies  of  this  country  and  of  several 
in  Europe.  The  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was 
conferred  upon  him  by  Gambier  College,  while  Torrey  and 
Gray  honoured  him  early  by  bestowing  the  name  Sullivantia 
Ohionis  upon  a  rare  and  modest  plant  discovered  by  him  in 
his  native  State,  and  belonging  to  the  same  order  (saxifrages) 
with  the  currant,  syringa,  and  hydrangea. 

For  nearly  forty  years  Sullivant  corresponded  with  Asa 
Gray,  also  collecting  with  him  and  co-operating  in  research 
whenever  practicable.  He  is  often  mentioned  in  Gray's  Let- 
ters. When  Lesquereux,  who  had  been  Gray's  curator  at 
Cambridge,  left  him  to  go  and  assist  the  Western  bryologist, 
Gray  wrote  in  a  letter  to  Torrey  :  "  They  will  do  up  bryology 
at  a  great  rate.  Lesquereux  says  that  the  collection  and 
library  of  Sullivant  in  muscology  are  *  magnifique,  superbe,  the 
best  he  ever  saw.'"  Under  date  of  December  6,  1857,  Gray 
writes  to  W.  J.  Hooker :  "  Your  first  letter  is  now  gone  to  Sul- 
livant, because  you  speak  of  him  so  handsomely,  and  say  that 


400  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

Mitten  is  instructed  to  prepare  a  set  of  mosses  for  him.  A 
noble  fellow  is  Sullivant,  and  deserves  all  you  say  of  him 
and  his  works.  The  more  you  get  to  know  of  him  the  better 
you  will  like  him."  And  when,  in  1877,  he  gave  to  Mr.  Bur- 
gess, since  famous  as  a  designer  of  yachts,  a  note  of  introduc- 
tion to  Charles  Darwin, Gray  wrote:  "  He  has  just  married  the 
daughter  of  my  dear  old  friend,  the  late  Mr.  Sullivant,  who 
did  for  muscology  in  this  country  more  than  one  man  is 
likely  ever  to  do  again." 

Prof.  Gray  said  of  him  in  the  memoir  already  quoted,  and 
which  has  supplied  the  facts  for  a  large  part  of  this  article : 
"  In  personal  appearance  and  carriage,  no  less  than  in  all  the 
traits  of  an  unselfish  and  well-balanced  character,  Mr.  Sulli- 
vant was  a  fine  specimen  of  a  man.  He  had  excellent  busi- 
ness talents,  and  was  an  exemplary  citizen ;  he  had  a  refined 
and  sure  taste,  and  was  an  accomplished  draughtsman.  But 
after  having  illustrated  his  earlier  productions  with  his  own 
pencil,  he  found  that  valuable  time  was  to  be  gained  by  em- 
ploying a  trained  artist.  He  discovered  in  Mr.  A.  Schrader  a 
hopeful  draughtsman,  and  he  educated  him  to  the  work,  with 
what  excellent  results  the  plates  of  the  Icones  and  of  his  other 
works  abundantly  show.  As  an  investigator  he  worked  de- 
liberately, slowly  indeed  and  not  continuously,  but  persever- 
ingly.  Having  chosen  his  particular  department,  he  gave  him- 
self undeviatingly  to  its  advancement.  His  works  have  laid 
such  a  broad  and  complete  foundation  for  the  study  of  bry- 
ology in  this  country,  and  are  of  such  recognised  importance 
everywhere,  that  they  must  always  be  of  classical  authority ; 
in  fact,  they  are  likely  to  remain  for  a  long  time  unrivalled. 
Wherever  mosses  are  studied  his  name  will  be  honourably  re- 
membered; in  this  country  it  should  long  be  remembered  with 
peculiar  gratitude." 

The  following  extract  from  a  letter  written  immediately 
after  Sullivant's  death  to  Mr.  Joseph  Sullivant  by  Leo  Les- 
quereux  will  be  interesting  : 

"  In  everything,  as  well  you  know,  W.  S.  S.  was  most  accu- 
rate. He  was  superficial  in  nothing.  He  worked  his  mosses 
slowly,  coming  again  and  again  to  a  doubtful  species,  compar- 
ng  authorities,  repeating  the  most  difficult  anatomical  prepar- 
ations, till  fully  satisfied  that  his  conclusions  were  warranted 
as  far  as  botanical  science  could  warrant  them.  The  numer- 


WILLIAM   STARLING  SULLIVANT. 


4OI 


ous  species  to  which  he  has  given  his  authority  have  there- 
fore been  admitted  and  recognised  by  the  most  eminent  bota- 
nists of  our  time — Schimper,  Miiller,  Lindberg,  etc.  More 
than  ten  years  ago  a  very  honourable  account  of  his  works  as 
a  bryologist  was  published  in  the  Botanische  Zeitung  of  Leip- 
sic,  which,  for  botany,  is  the  highest  European  authority. 

"Another  remarkable  trait  of'  the  character  of  your  la- 
mented brother  was  his  perhaps  too  liberal  disposition  to  work 
in  science  for  the  benefit  of  others,  without  credit  for  himself. 
Not  only  did  he  give  his  time  to  the  determination  of  an  im- 
mense number  of  specimens  which  were  sent  to  him  by  stu- 
dents, or  by  so-called  authors,  etc.,  but  often,  without  claim- 
ing his  right  of  authority,  he  determined  the  species,  prepared 
descriptions  of  the  new  ones,  when  he  well  knew  that  they 
would  be  published  under  the  names  of  his  applicants.  He 
has  thus  fixed  a  far  larger  number  than  those  which  were  pub- 
lished in  his  name.  Even  lately  he  examined  a  large  collec- 
tion of  mosses  in  which  his  opinion  was  requested,  prepared 
descriptions  of  new  species,  remarks  on  interesting  ones,  etc., 
and  from  this  work  a  catalogue  was  made  by  the  same  appli- 
cant, the  notes  copied  as  well  as  his  remarks,  and  thus  the 
authorship  was  literally  taken  from  him,  and  not  even  a  word 
of  credit  was  given  for  his  work.  Such  absence  of  scientific 
honesty  was  not  even  resented  by  your  brother,  who  merely 
alluded  to  it  as  a  poor  reward  for  hard  work.  A  character  as 
was  his,  without  trace  of  envious  or  jealous  feeling,  marked 
by  true  kindness  for  everybody,  by  a  ready  disposition  to  ac- 
knowledge and  help  every  effort  for  the  advancement  of  his 
science  of  predilection,  to  recognise  errors  and  to  correct  them 
without  the  slightest  word  of  depreciation,  could  but  excite 
admiration  and  love ;  and,  indeed,  your  brother  was  truly  and 
sincerely  loved  by  the  few  who  knew  him  well ;  for  he  was  not 
open  to  everybody.  A  man  of  few  words,  he  never  talked  of 
himself  or  his  doings,  and  thus  only  those  who  had  the  privi- 
lege of  being  intimate  with  him  would  recognise  his  noble 
nature." 


WILLIAM   WILLIAMS   MATHER. 
1804-1859. 

AMERICA  will  never  cease  to  benefit  from  the  influence  of 
its  Puritan  stock.  Although  the  former  preponderance  in  na- 
tional affairs  of  New  England  as  a  section  has  disappeared 
with  the  widening  of  our  territory,  the  vigour,  the  intellect, 
and  the  conscience  of  the  settlers  at  Plymouth  and  at  Bos- 
ton have  been  diffused  by  their  restless  descendants  through 
every  State  in  the  Union.  They  are  seen  in  the  capacity 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States  for  accomplishing  great 
undertakings,  for  bearing  heavy  burdens,  and  more  than  all  in 
their  power  of  self-government  and  self-control. 

William  Williams  Mather  came  from  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated of  the  Puritan  families  in  America.  He  was  descended 
from  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  who  fled  to  Massachusetts  in  1635 
to  escape  persecution  for  nonconformity.  Richard  Mather 
brought  four  sons  to  America,  from  the  second  of  whom, 
Timothy,  was  descended  the  subject  of  this  article.  Two 
other  sons,  Eleazer  and  Increase,  were  born  to  Richard  in  this 
country,  and  the  latter  of  these  was  the  president  of  Harvard 
College  from  1688-1701.  Cotton  Mather,  the  eminent  divine 
and  author,  whose  misguided  zeal  was  such  a  strong  support 
to  the  "witchcraft  delusion,"  was  a  son  of  Increase.  The 
paternal  grandfather  of  William,  Eleazer  Mather,  and  his 
grand-uncle,  Elisha,  were  officers  of  the  Connecticut  troops  in 
the  Revolutionary  War.  The  eldest  son  of  this  Eleazer,  who 
bore  the  same  name,  was  the  father  of  William.  He  learned 
the  hatter's  trade  in  Norwich  and  set  up  a  business  for  himself 
at  Brooklyn,  in  Windham  County,  Conn.,  which  he  carried  on 
successfully  for  a  number  of  years.  He  then  travelled  for  a 
time  in  Canada,  and  returning  to  Brooklyn  married  Miss 
Fanny  Williams,  daughter  of  Nathan  Williams,  who  was  also 
a  soldier  of  the  Revolution.  After  his  marriage  he  ceased  to 


WILLIAM    WILLIAMS    MATHER. 


WILLIAM   WILLIAMS   MATHER. 


403 


follow  his  trade,  and  kept  a  temperance  hotel,  also  giving 
considerable  attention  to  the  improvement  of  worn-out  lands. 
His  son  William  W.  was  born  in  Brooklyn  on  May  24,  1804. 

The  Hon.  Ivers  J.  Austin,  who  wrote  the  memorial  sketch 
of  William  Mather  for  the  New  England  Historic  Genealogical 
Society,*  was  unable  to  find  any  information  concerning  Wil- 
liam's childhood  and  very  little  in  regard  to  his  early  youth. 
While  still  in  his  teens  William  formed  the  purpose  of  becom- 
ing a  physician,  and  went  to  Providence,  R.  I.,  to  take  up 
medical  studies.  There  he  became  much  interested  in  chem- 
istry, and  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  home  he  brought  with 
him  an  elaborate  piece  of  chemical  apparatus,  the  cost  of 
which  rather  astonished  and  displeased  his  father.  But  he  so 
amused  and  instructed  his  family  by  his  chemical  experiments 
and  explanations  that  his  father  became  entirely  reconciled  to 
this  outlay.  In  1822  the  young  man  applied  for  a  warrant  as 
a  cadet  at  West  Point,  which  he  obtained  in  the  following 
year.  For  this  appointment  he  had  recommendations  of  the 
highest  character.  Twelve  well-known  men,  living  in  seven 
towns,  certified  to  his  ability  and  worth.  The  chief  judge  of 
Windham  County,  wrote  :  "  He  is  about  eighteen  years  of  age, 
possessed  of  much  more  than  common  talents  and  literature. 
He  understands  the  Latin  language,  and  some  of  the  higher 
branches  of  mathematical  science,  which  he  acquires  with 
much  facility.  His  moral  character  is,  I  think,  very  fair  and 
unexceptionable." 

He  entered  the  academy  in  the  summer  of  1823,  and,  in 
common  with  eight  or  nine  other  members  of  his  class,  spent 
one  year  more  than  the  usual  period  there,  being  graduated 
in  1828.  Young  Mather  was  proficient  in  chemical  analysis, 
especially  of  ores  and  minerals,  before  going  to  West  Point, 
and  in  1826,  when  Webster's  Chemistry  was  passing  through 
the  press,  the  proof-sheets  of  a  part  if  not  of  the  whole  of  the 
work  were  sent  to  him  by  the  author  for  suggestions  and  cor- 
rections. These  were  furnished  by  him  and  were  adopted,  but 
Mather's  name  was  not  mentioned  in  the  preface  of  the  book 
among  those  who  had  contributed  to  it,  and  he  expressed  to 
his  classmate  and  memoirist,  Austin,  his  disappointment  at  the 


*  It  is  from  this  memorial  that  most  of  the  facts  in  the  present  article  are 
derived. 


404  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

omission.  In  the  fall  of  that  year  he  entered  the  second  class, 
thus  coming  to  the  studies  of  chemistry  and  mineralogy  in  the 
curriculum  of  the  academy,  Webster's  book  being  used.  Ca- 
det Mather  at  once  took  the  head  of  the  class  in  these  sub- 
jects, and  easily  kept  his  place  to  the  end  of  the  course. 
When  off  duty  he  explored  the  hills  of  the  vicinity  to  collect 
minerals  for  his  private  cabinet  and  that  of  the  lyceum.  The 
chemical  laboratory  of  the  institution  was  also  a  place  of  re- 
sort for  his  leisure  hours.  During  the  last  year  of  the  course 
he  was  an  assistant  in  the  laboratory.  He  seemed  to  have  a 
special  aptitude  for  science  and  took  great  delight  in  experi- 
menting. Mr.  Austin  illustrates  this  tendency  by  the  follow- 
ing account : 

"  The  winter  of  1826-27  was  very  cold.  The  ice,  floating 
down  to  the  narrow  gorge  between  the  precipitous  shores  of 
West  Point  and  the  opposite  bank,  became  wedged  there  and 
was  exceedingly  thick.  It  occurred  to  Mather  that  a  favour- 
able opportunity  was  thus  offered  to  ascertain  the  temperature 
of  the  water  at  the  bottom  of  the  river  while  the  surface  was 
covered  with  ice.  After  several  attempts  he  succeeded  in 
making  a  self-registering  thermometer,  and  an  apparatus  for 
bringing  up  a  specimen  of  the  water  of  the  lowest  depth.  A 
hole  was  cut  through  the  ice  about  the  middle  of  the  river, 
and  the  apparatus,  attached  to  a  strong  cord  was  let  down 
into  the  water,  but  the  current  was  so  strong  that  it  failed  to 
reach  the  bottom.  With  a  heavier  weight  it  sank  far  enough, 
but  the  pressure  forced  the  cork  into  the  bottle.  The  next 
attempt  was  successful ;  water  was  drawn  from  below,  and  its 
temperature  ascertained  from  the  self-registering,  compared 
with  that  indicated  by  a  detached,  thermometer.  The  result 
of  this  experiment,  in  which  the  writer  assisted  him,  is  not 
remembered,  but  Mather  declared  that  he  was  satisfied  with  it. 
Such  was  his  occupation,  on  one  of  the  coldest  days  in  winter, 
during  the  whole  of  the  Saturday  afternoon  allowed  to  the 
corps  for  recreation." 

On  graduating  he  was  assigned  to  the  Seventh  Infantry  with 
the  customary  rank  of  second  lieutenant.  He  remained  at 
West  Point  as  acting  assistant  instructor  of  artillery  during  the 
summer  encampment  of  1828,  and  was  then  ordered  to  the 
School  of  Practice  at  Jefferson  barracks,  where  he  remained 
until  April,  1829.  From  April  to  the  end  of  June  he  was  on 


WILLIAM   WILLIAMS   MATHER.  405 

frontier  duty  at  Fort  Jessup,  La.  He  was  then  detailed  to 
serve  as  acting  assistant  Professor  of  Chemistry,  Mineralogy, 
and  Geology  in  the  Military  Academy,  which  duty  he  performed 
until  the  summer  of  1835.  The  assistant  professors  at  the 
academy  at  that  time  were  usually  detailed  from  recent  gradu- 
ates, and  their  terms  of  service  rarely  exceeded  two  years. 
The  fact  that  Lieutenant  Mather  was  retained  in  that  capacity 
for  six  years  indicates  that  he  was  an  unusually  successful  in- 
structor. During  the  recess  of  his  course  of  instruction  in 
1833  he  acted  as  Professor  of  Geology,  with  the  permission  of 
the  War  Department,  at  Wesleyan  University,  Middletown, 
Conn.,  and  the  following  year  received  the  honorary  degree 
of  A.  M.  from  this  university.  In  the  summer  of  1834  he  made 
a  geological  survey  of  Windham  County,  Conn.,  and  drew  up 
a  report,  which  was  published. 

Within  the  first  year  after  his  graduation  Lieutenant  Ma- 
ther published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  a  paper 
entitled  On  the  Nonconducting  Power  of  Water  with  Regard 
to  Heat.  While  serving  as  assistant  professor  ^at  the  acad- 
emy he  contributed  other  papers  to  the  same  journal,  and 
wrote  a  small  text-book,  Elements  of  Geology,  which  was  af- 
terward enlarged  and  passed  through  several  editions.  He 
wrote  also  an  account  of  the  dilivium  for  the  use  of  the  cadets 
in  their  study  of  geology. 

On  being  relieved  from  duty  at  the  academy  he  was  as- 
signed to  topographical  service  as  an  assistant  to  G.  W. 
Featherstonhaugh  in  a  geological  examination  of  the  country 
from  Green  Bay  to  Coteaus  de  Prairies.  This  work  occupied 
him  during  the  latter  half  of  1835.  He  made  a  topographical 
map  of  the  St.  Peter's  (Minnesota)  River  Valley  and  a  report, 
which  his  later  associate  Whittlesey  says  he  refused  to  pre- 
sent to  the  "  pretentious  English  geologist  in  charge  of 
the  expedition,"  but  transmitted  direct  to  the  United  States 
Government.  When  this  survey  was  completed  he  was  pro- 
moted to  a  first  lieutenancy  and  sent  to  join  his  regiment  on 
frontier  duty  at  Fort  Gibson,  in  Idaho  Territory.  The  follow- 
ing summer  he  marched  into  the  Choctaw  country  in  com- 
mand of  his  company.  Feeling  that  he  could  now  safely 
adopt  the  pursuit  of  science  as  a  profession,  he  resigned  his 
commission  in  the  army  at  the  end  of  August,  1836. 

When  he  had   been  one  year  at  West  Point  as  assistant 


406  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

professor,  Lieutenant  Mather  married  his  cousin,  Miss  Emily 
Maria  Baker.  By  this  marriage  he  had  three  sons  and  three 
daughters.  Mrs.  Mather  died  in  1850. 

After  leaving  the  army  Mr.  Mather  was  for  a  short  time 
Professor  of  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  and  Geology  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Louisiana,  but  before  the  close  of  1836  Governor 
Marcy,  of  New  York,  appointed  him,  together  with  Ebenezer 
Emmons,  T.  A.  Conrad,  and  Lardner  Vanuxem  to  make  a 
geological  survey  of  that  State.  Each  of  these  principal 
geologists  was  assigned  to  one  of  four  districts  into  which  the 
State  was  divided  for  the  purpose.  Mather  had  the  first 
district,  which  comprised  Washington,  Saratoga,  Schenectady, 
Schoharie,  and  Delaware  Counties,  and  all  that  part  of  the 
State  to  the  southeast  of  them.  What  this  survey  accom- 
plished has  been  told  by  Dr.  James  Hall,  in  the  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  for  April,  1883.  Among  other  things,  he 
says  that  "  Their  labours  had  in  a  great  degree  quieted  the 
feverish  anxiety  regarding  the  discovery  of  coal  within  the 
limits  of  New  York,  for  which  frequent  explorations  had  been 
made  in  the  black  slates  of  the  Hudson  River  Valley  and  else- 
where, involving  the  expenditure  of  much  money  and  loss  of 
time.  .  .  .  Professor  Mather  has  estimated,  from  what  he  re- 
garded as  reliable  data,  that  the  fruitless  coal-mining  enter- 
prises which  had  been  undertaken  in  the  Hudson  Valley  alone, 
during  the  fifty  years  preceding  1840,  had  cost  more  than  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  dollars.  The  sums  thus  expended  in 
other  parts  of  the  State,  though  doubtless  much  less,  must, 
nevertheless,  have  been  very  large."  The  work  of  the  survey 
lasted  about  seven  years.  During  this  time  Prof.  Mather  made 
five  periodical  reports  and  a  final  report.  This  last  forms  a 
quarto  volume  of  six  hundred  and  fifty-three  pages,  with  forty- 
six  coloured  plates,  being  one  of  the  set  of  volumes  embodying 
the  results  of  the  survey  and  published  by  the  State.  This 
report  has  been  highly  commended. 

In  1837  a  State  Geological  Survey  of  Ohio  was  projected 
and  Prof.  Mather  was  made  chief  geologist.  This  ill-fated 
project  was  killed  after  an  existence  of  little  more  than  two 
years  by  a  spasm  of  economy  which  attacked  the  Ohio  Legis- 
lature of  1839.  Two  annual  reports  had  been  presented,  and 
were  printed  as  State  documents,  and  a  report  on  the  collec- 
tions was  made  afterward,  but  there  was  no  final  report,  and 


WILLIAM   WILLIAMS   MATHER.  407 

no  provision  was  made  for  preserving  papers,  field-notes,  and 
maps.  A  geological  reconnaissance  of  Kentucky,  authorized 
by  the  Legislature  of  that  State,  was  made  by  Prof.  Mather 
in  1838-39,  his  report  being  issued  as  a  State  document.  Both 
his  appointment  in  Ohio  and  that  in  Kentucky  had  been  ac- 
cepted with  the  condition  that  they  should  not  prevent  the 
completion  of  his  work  in  New  York. 

Colonel  Charles  Whittlesey  has  stated,  in  an  article  on  the 
Personnel  of  the  First  Geological  Survey  of  Ohio,  that  after 
the  suspension  of  the  Ohio  survey,  Mather  bought  a  tract  of 
several  hundred  acres,  including  the  Pigeon  Roost,  north  of 
the  court-house  in  Jackson  County,  and  became  a  citizen  of 
Ohio.  He  cleared  a  part  of  this  land  for  a  farm  and  built 
him  a  comfortable  house  on  it.  Afterward  he  and  Prof.  James 
Hall  entered  a  large  tract  of  Government  land  in  the  south- 
ern part  of  the  same  county,  on  which  they  erected  an  iron 
furnace. 

When  Mr.  Mather  settled  in  Jackson  County,  in  1841,  it 
was  impossible  to  obtain  sperm  oil  there  for  domestic  lighting. 
The  only  recourse  of  the  family  was  to  mould  tallow  candles, 
which  was  very  unsatisfactory.  In  the  following  winter  Mr. 
Mather  began  experimenting  on  the  preparation  of  oil  from 
lard.  He  placed  the  lard  in  a  canvas  bag  and  suspended  it  in 
a  warm  room,  thus  obtaining  by  the  slow  process  of  dripping 
an  oil  that  the  family  used  in  lamps.  An  account  of  these  ex- 
periments was  published,  and  is  believed  to  have  been  the 
starting-point  of  the  production  of  lard  oil,  which  has  since 
become  so  extensive. 

About  the  time  the  field  work  of  the  New  York  survey  was 
finished,  Prof.  Mather  became  Professor  of  Natural  Science  in 
the  Ohio  University  at  Athens.  He  held  this  position  from 
1842  to  1845  and  from  1847  to  1850,  being  vice-president  and 
acting  president  in  1845.  The  period  from  1845  to  1847  was 
occupied  in  examining  mineral  lands  for  mining  companies, 
mainly  about  Lake  Superior,  but  also  in  New  Jersey,  Virginia, 
and  Massachusetts.  During  the  first  quarter  of  1846  he  was 
acting  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Geology  in  Marietta  Col- 
lege, his  other  engagements  making  him  unwilling  to  accept 
the  professorship.  In  the  winter  of  1845  ne  began  a  series  of 
experiments  on  the  extraction  of  bromine  from  the  bitter  wa- 
ters of  the  salt  works  near  Athens,  Ohio.  At  that  time  bro- 


408  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

mine,  which  can  now  be  had  for  sixty  cents  a  pound,  was  sell- 
ing at  sixteen  dollars  an  ounce.  The  results  of  his  investiga- 
tions were  published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science.  They 
showed  that  bromine  could  be  obtained  from  these  waters  for 
much  less  than  it  was  then  costing,  and  resulted  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  plant  at  Pomeroy,  Ohio,  which  produces  the 
greater  part  of  the  world's  present  supply  of  this  substance. 

In  similar  public  and  private  employments  the  rest  of  his 
life  was  passed.  He  was  Agricultural  Chemist  for  the  State 
of  Ohio,  and  secretary  of  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  from 
1850  to  1854.  During  part  of  this  time  he  edited  the  West- 
ern Agriculturist,  and  during  the  last  year  was  member  for 
Ohio  of  the  U.  S.  Board  of  Agriculture.  He  also  continued  to 
make  examinations  of  mineral  lands.  His  first  wife  having 
died,  he  married  in  1851  Mrs.  Mary  (Harries)  Curtis,  who  sur- 
vived him.  By  this  marriage  he  had  one  son.  The  person  of 
Prof.  Mather  was  large  and  robust,  and  he  had  a  great  ca- 
pacity for  physical  and  mental  labour,  all  of  which  promised 
a  long  life.  This  expectation,  however,  was  not  realized.  He 
died  Feb.  26,  1859,  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four. 
His  death  was  sudden  and  was  ascribed  to  a  complication  of 
dropsy  and  paralysis. 

In  addition  to  his  writings  already  mentioned,  Prof.  Mather 
contributed  frequent  papers  to  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  and  other  scientific  periodicals,  and  he  wrote  many  re- 
ports on  the  explorations  made  in  the  course  of  his  profes- 
sional work.  He  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from  Brown 
University  in  1855,  was  a  member  of  twenty-five  scientific  and 
literary  organizations,  a  life-member  of  many  religious  asso- 
ciations, and  for  fifteen  years  a  trustee  of  Granville  College. 

In  his  various  expeditions  he  collected  large  numbers  of 
minerals  and  geological  specimens.  His  collection  was  much 
increased  by  exchanges  with  American  and  foreign  geologists, 
and  at  his  death  contained  about  twenty-six  thousand  speci- 
mens. At  present  it  is  owned  by  his  son,  Richard,  of  Ironton, 
Ohio. 

Mr.  Austin  thus  describes  his  character :  "  Equable  in  his 
disposition  and  gentle  in  his  manners,  considerate  of  others 
and  just  in  his  judgment  of  them,  modest,  but  manly  and  self- 
reliant,  thoroughly  versed  in  the  branches  of  science  to  which 
he  devoted  himself,  he  had  neither  dogmatism  nor  ostentation. 


WILLIAM   WILLIAMS    MATHER.  409 

As  he  observed  in  a  letter  to  a  personal  friend,  who  differed 
from  him  in  regard  to  a  geological  question  :  *  I  am  not  wed- 
ded to  any  theory,  but  seek  the  truth — and  when  found  adopt 
it.'  "  He  was  not  inclined  to  court  popularity,  neither  was  his 
manner  forbidding.  Letters  preserved  by  his  family  and 
friends  give  abundant  evidence  of  the  gentleness  of  his  dis- 
position, the  firmness  of  his  principles,  and  his  high  sense  of 
honour. 

The  supremacy  of  his  will-power  over  physical  pain  is  il- 
lustrated in  the  following  anecdote  :  "  While  making  an  exam- 
ination of  coal  lands  near  Pomeroy  in  Ohio,  he  was  wounded 
in  the  second  finger  of  his  right  hand.  This  wound  induced 
a  partial  paralysis,  and  required  an  amputation  of  the  finger. 
The  cause  of  it  was  supposed  to  be  a  snake  bite.  As  soon  as 
he  was  convinced  by  the  examination  that  amputation  was  in- 
evitable, he  directed  the  surgeon  to  procure  a  block,  a  chisel, 
and  a  mallet,  and,  placing  his  finger  on  the  block,  told  him  to 
sever  the  finger  at  one  blow.  This  was  attempted,  but  proved 
a  sad  failure.  The  chisel  was  too  thin  and  highly  tempered, 
and  the  edge  crumbled.  Nevertheless  he  directed  the  surgeon 
to  go  on,  and  several  blows  were  required  before  a  complete 
severance  could  be  made  ;  although  in  this  painful  operation 
the  bone  was  crushed  instead  of  being  cut,  he  bore  it  without 
flinching." 

The  substantial  national  reputation  as  a  geologist  won  by 
William  W.  Mather  was  the  result  of  the  steady  and  conscien- 
tious application  of  a  natural  aptitude.  "  Not  possessing  the 
genius  which  dazzles,"  says  his  friend  Austin,  "  he  had  the 
intellect  which,  continually  improved  by  exercise,  achieved 
valuable  results  by  patient  and  conscientious  industry.  What 
duty  demanded,  that  he  performed  regardless  of  consequences, 
either  to  himself  or  others.  Not  indifferent  to  fame,  he  never 
sought  it  by  doubtful  or  devious  courses.  His  object  was 
not  to  enhance  his  reputation,  but  faithfully  to  do  the  work 
before  him.  Through  the  whole  of  his  active  and  laborious 
life  of  thirty  years  in  the  cause  of  science,  in  all  the  various 
and  important  public  positions  which  he  occupied,  no  breath  of 
censure  assailed  his  integrity,  which  was  a  law  of  nature  with 
him,  rather  than  a  choice  or  a  principle." 


27 


WILLIAM   BARTON   ROGERS. 

1804-1882. 

THE  second  in  age  of  four  brothers  eminent  in  science, 
William  Barton  Rogers  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Dec.  7, 
1804.  His  ancestry  will  be  found  in  the  sketch  of  his  elder 
brother  included  in  the  present  volume.  The  middle  name 
given  to  him  is  a  loving  memorial  of  his  father's  respect  and 
friendship  for  his  medical  preceptor,  Dr.  Benjamin  S.  Barton. 
William  was  eight  years  old  when  his  parents  removed  to 
Baltimore  and  fifteen  when  they  went  to  Williamsburg.  Hence 
his  early  education  was  mostly  obtained  in  these  two  places. 
Dr.  Ruschenberger  mentions  that  William,  while  a  youth, 
"  was  employed  in  Baltimore  by  a  dealer  in  crockeryware,  and 
acquired  such  facility  in  wrapping  packages  that  he  subse- 
quently reckoned  it  among  his  accomplishments."  * 

He  graduated  in  1822  from  the  College  of  William  and 
Mary,  where  his  father  was  then  Professor  of  Natural  Philos- 
ophy and  Mathematics,  and  soon  after  this  he  and  his  brother 
Henry  started  a  private  school  in  the  suburbs  of  Baltimore. 
How  long  the  enterprise  endured  or  what  was  its  success  have 
not  been  ascertained. 

When  twenty-two  years  of  age  William  gave  his  first  lec- 
tures on  science  in  the  Maryland  Institute,  Baltimore,  and  the 
following  year  was  appointed  to  the  professorship  in  William 
and  Mary  College,  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  his  father,  where 
he  remained  until  1835.  He  was  then  appointed  to  the  chair 
of  Natural  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  there 
extended  his  instructions  by  adding  the  subjects  of  miner- 
alogy and  geology  to  his  course.  The  same  year  he  organized 

*  A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Robert  E.  Rogers,  M.  D.,  LL.  D.f  with  Biograph- 
ical Notices  of  his  Father  and  Brothers.  By  W.  S.  W.  Ruschenberger,  M.  D. 
Read  before  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Nov.  6,  1885. 

410 


WILLIAM  BARTON  ROGERS. 


WILLIAM   BARTON   ROGERS.  411 

the  geological  survey  of  the  State,  having,  while  a  professor  at 
William  and  Mary,  begun  his  geological  labours  with  an  ex- 
amination of  the  Tertiary  formation  of  this  region,  of  which  he 
published,  in  conjunction  with  his  brother  Henry  D.  Rogers, 
two  memoirs  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society.  In  June,  1834,  and  May,  1835,  he  had  pub- 
lished also,  in  the  Farmers'  Register,  three  papers  on  the 
Green  Sand  and  Marl  of  Eastern  Virginia,  pointing  out  their 
value  as  fertilizers.  At  this  time,  besides  other  chemical  re- 
searches, he  made  an  analysis  of  the  waters  of  the  Virginia 
mineral  springs,  the  results  of  which  have  appeared  in  various 
publications. 

He  remained  at  the  head  of  the  geological  survey  until  it 
was  discontinued  in  1842,  having  published  a  series  of  annual 
reports  and  collected  further  materials,  for  the  completion  and 
publication  of  which,  however,  no  provision  was  made  by  the 
State.  All  his  brothers  were  from  time  to  time  among  his 
assistants  in  field  and  laboratory  work.  While  at  the  univer- 
sity he  published  for  the  use  of  his  students  a  short  treatise 
on  the  Strength  of  Materials  (Charlottesville,  1838),  and  a 
volume  on  The  Elements  of  Mechanical  Philosophy  (Bos- 
ton, 1852).  During  this  period  of  his  life,  besides  the  cares  of 
his  professorship  and  of  the  survey,  he  occupied  himself  with 
original  researches  in  various  departments  of  science,  partly 
geological,  in  connection  with  his  field  work,  and,  after  the  sur- 
vey ended,  chiefly  in  chemistry  and  physics. 

In  1840  the  "Association  of  American  Geologists  and 
Naturalists  "  was  organized.  In  this  society,  embracing  Hitch- 
cock, Hale,  Vanuxem,  the  four  brothers  Rogers,  Conrad,  Em- 
mons,  and  others  engaged  in  active  scientific  research,  Prof. 
Rogers  took  a  leading  part,  as  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  its 
Transactions. 

One  of  the  more  important  of  his  geological  researches 
published  at  this  time  concerned  the  solvent  power  of  water, 
especially  when  charged  with  carbonic  acid,  on  various  miner- 
als and  rocks,  and  showed  the  extent  of  this  action  in  Nature. 
In  connection  with  his  brother  Robert,  Prof.  Rogers  was  the 
first  to  investigate  this  subject. 

From  his  examinations  of  the  Virginia  coal  deposits  he  dis- 
covered that  the  condition  of  any  coalbed  stands  in  a  close 
genetic  relation  to  the  amount  of  disturbance  to  which  the 


412 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


enclosing  strata  have  been  submitted,  the  coal  becoming  harder 
and  containing  less  volatile  matter  as  the  evidence  of  disturb- 
ance increases. 

But  the  most  notable  contribution  that  Prof.  Rogers  made 
to  the  advance  of  geologic  science  was  the  "  wave  theory  "  of 
mountain  chains.  This  was  the  joint  work  of  William  B.  and 
Henry  D.  Rogers,  being  founded  on  their  researches  in  the 
Appalachian  chain,  and  was  presented  by  them  to  the  Associa- 
tion of  Geologists  in  1842  in  the  form  of  an  oral  statement, 
with  the  title,  The  Laws  of  Structure  of  the  more  Disturbed 
Zones  of  the  Earth's  Crust.  The  theory  represented  the  ele- 
vation of  mountain  chains  as  the  result  of  movements  of  the 
earth's  surface  similar  to  the  movements  which  raise  up  waves 
upon  a  body  of  water.  The  grandeur  of  the  conception,  the 
immense  amount  of  evidence  piled  up  in  support  of  it,  and  the 
eloquence  with  which  the  whole  was  presented  made  a  pro- 
found impression  at  the  meeting.  One  who  was  present,  Mr. 
John  L.  Hays,  of  Cambridge,  said  forty  years  afterward :  "  I 
have  frequently  read  it  since.  To  me  it  is  now  comparatively 
tame  in  expression.  It  lacks  the  inspiration  of  the  scene  and 
the  man,  the  illustrative  diagrams,  the  emphasis  of  voice  and 
finger  pointing  out  the  distinguishing  phenomena,  and  the  fer- 
vour of  spontaneous  utterance.  The  impression  I  have  of  this 
exposition  as  delivered  is  that,  next  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
oration  of  Wendell  Phillips  at  Harvard,  it  is  the  most  lucid  and 
elegant  effort  of  oral  statement  to  which  I  ever  listened."  It 
was  the  first  important  contribution  to  dynamical  and  struc- 
tural geology  which  had  been  brought  forward  in  this  country. 
The  novelty  and  importance  of  its  generalizations  were  at  once 
recognised  in  Europe  as  well  as  at  home,  and  gave  the  authors, 
the  "  Gebriider  Rogers,"  a  prominent  place  among  contempo- 
rary geologists.  This  memoir  is  still  regarded  as  of  classical 
value. 

The  "  wave  theory  "  was  further  supported  by  the  discover- 
ies of  Prof.  Rogers  in  regard  to  the  distribution  of  those  rup- 
tures of  the  strata  called  faults.  He  showed  in  another  paper 
that  they  do  not  occur  on  gentle  waves,  but  on  the  sharpest 
flexures  of  mountain  chains,  which  have  given  way  at  the 
summit  where  the  strain  was  greatest.  Furthermore,  the 
plane  of  the  fault  was  usually  parallel  to,  if  not  coincident 
with,  the  plane  of  the  ridge.  The  evidence  for  this  statement 


WILLIAM  BARTON  ROGERS.  4x3 

was  afforded  by  the  observed  positions  of  more  than  fifty  ther- 
mal springs  in  the  Appalachian  belt,  occurring  in  an  area  of 
about  fifteen  thousand  square  miles,  which  were  shown  to 
issue  from  anticlinal  axes  and  faults,  or  from  points  very  near 
such  lines. 

In  connection  with  his  brother  Robert  E.  Rogers,  now  be- 
come his  colleague  as  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Materia 
Medica  in  the  university,  he  published  a  number  of  important 
chemical  contributions,  relating  chiefly  to  new  or  improved 
methods  in  chemical  analysis  and  research,  in  Silliman's  Jour- 
nal, between  1840  and  1850.  Among  these  were  papers  On 
a  New  Process  for  obtaining  Pure  Chlorine  ;  A  New  Process 
for  obtaining  Formic  Acid,  Aldehyde,  etc. ;  On  the  Oxidation 
of  the  Diamond  in  the  Liquid  Way ;  On  New  Instruments  and 
Processes  for  the  Analysis  of  the  Carbonates ;  On  the  Absorp- 
tion of  Carbonic  Acid  by  Liquids,  an  extended  investigation ; 
and  On  the  Decomposition  of  Rocks  by  Carbonated  and  Mete- 
oric Waters,  a  paper  of  much  interest  in  its  geological  bear- 
ings. 

In  the  volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion for  1849,  Prof.  Rogers  called  attention  to  the  existence 
of  true  coal  measures  below  the  horizon  of  the  Carboniferous 
limestone  in  the  Appalachian  belt  as  discovered  by  him  in  the 
Virginia  survey,  and  referred  to  in  his  annual  reports. 

Prof.  Rogers  married  June  20,  1849,  Miss  Emma,  daughter 
of  Hon.  James  Savage,  of  Boston,  President  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Historical  Society,  and  author  of  the  Genealogical  Dic- 
tionary, and,  with  his  bride,  sailed  the  same  day  for  a  trip 
in  Europe.  He  returned  in  October  to  resume  his  duties  in 
Virginia.  Mrs.  Rogers  became,  says  William  C.  Rives,*  "  the 
promoter  of  his  labours,  the  ornament  and  solace  of  his  middle 
life,  and  the  devoted  companion  and  support  of  his  declining 
years."  Soon  after  his  death  she  edited  very  admirably,  with 
the  assistance  of  Major  Jed.  Hotchkiss,  a  Reprint  of  the  Annual 
Reports  and  other  Papers  on  the  Geology  of  the  Virginias.f 

In  1853  Prof.  Rogers  resigned  his  professorship  at  Char- 
lottesville,  after  eighteen  years  of  efficient  service,  and  removed 


*  An  address  delivered  before  the  Society  of  the  Alumni  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  on  Comrriencement  Day,  June  27,  1883. 
f  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1884. 


414  PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

to  Boston.  Here,  although  he  early  identified  himself  with  the 
educational  and  public  interests  of  the  community,  he  did  not 
relax  his  devotion  to  scientific  labours,  which  were  now,  how- 
ever, more  largely  directed  to  the  department  of  experimental 
physics.  Among  his  contributions  to  physics  at  this  period 
may  be  mentioned  a  series  of  papers  On  Binocular  Vision, 
giving  an  Elaborate  Analysis  of  the  Phenomena,  with  some 
Important  Additions  to  the  Researches  on  this  Subject  of 
Wheatstone  and  Brewster ;  Experiments  on  Sonorous  Flames, 
in  which  he  described  an  apparatus  for  making  visible  the 
vibrations  by  rotating  the  flame ;  and  On  the  Formation  of 
Rings  of  Air  and  Liquids — all  of  which  may  be  found  in 
Silliman's  Journal  (1855-1860). 

He  also  published,  in  the  New  Edinburgh  Philosophical 
Journal,  the  results  of  continued  observations  on  atmospheric 
ozone,  and  on  the  auroras  of  August  and  September,  1859 
and  1860.  As  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences,  and  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History, 
Prof.  Rogers  took  an  active  part  in  the  discussions  of  the 
various  scientific  questions  then  rising  into  importance,  and 
made  contributions  from  time  to  time  to  their  published  pro- 
ceedings. Among  the  communications  to  the  American  Acad- 
emy we  may  note  papers  On  the  Protozoic  Age  of  Certain 
Rocks  in  Eastern  Massachusetts;  On  the  Actinism  of  the 
Electric  Discharge  in  Vacuum  Tubes,  of  which  he  exhibited 
numerous  photographs,  in  connection  with  his  paper  on  the  im- 
provements, by  Mr.  E.  S.  Ritchie,  of  the  Ruhmkorff  apparatus; 
and  Experiments  disproving,  by  the  Binocular  Combination 
of  Visual  Spectra,  Brewster's  Theory  of  Successive  Combina- 
tion of  Corresponding  Points. 

In  the  Transactions  of  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural  His- 
tory appeared,  among  other  articles  by  Prof.  Rogers,  commu- 
nications On  the  Growth  of  Stalactites;  Geological  Relations 
of  the  New  Red  Sandstone  of  the  Middle  States  to  the  Coal- 
Rocks  of  Eastern  Virginia  and  North  Carolina ;  On  the  Origin 
and  Accumulation  of  the  Protocarbonate  of  Iron  in  Coal  Meas- 
ures ;  On  the  Natural  Coke  and  Associated  Igneous  Rocks 
of  Eastern  Virginia;  and  On  Pebbles  in  the  Newport  Conglom- 
erate. 

At  the  annual  meetings  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science,  Prof.  Rogers  was  a  frequent  con- 


WILLIAM   BARTON   ROGERS.  415 

tributor,  as  well  in  the  discussions  of  scientific  questions  as 
in  the  communication  of  original  papers,  which,  however,  in 
most  cases,  appear  only  by  title  in  their  Transactions,  or  are 
to  be  found  in  other  publications  before  mentioned.  In  1857 
he  made  another  visit  to  Europe  and  attended  the  meeting  of 
the  British  Association  at  Dublin. 

At  the  request  of  his  friend  Governor  Andrew,  in  1861,  he 
accepted  the  office  of  Inspector  of  Gas  and  Gas  Meters  for  the 
State  of  Massachusetts,  and  organized  a  system  of  inspection 
in  which  he  aimed  to  apply  scientific  principles  more  fully  than 
had  hitherto  been  attempted  in  the  United  States.  Some  ac- 
count of  his  methods  was  given  by  him  at  the  meeting  of  the 
British  Association  in  1864.  During  this  time  Prof.  Rogers 
was  often  called  upon  for  public  lectures  on  scientific  subjects 
in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere,  and  gave  several  courses 
before  the  Lowell  Institute  in  Boston. 

Prof.  Rogers  had  long  felt  the  need,  in  our  educational 
system,  of  giving  to  the  physical  sciences  a  higher  place  and 
more  practical  methods  of  teaching  than  had  hitherto  been 
allowed  them,  and  he  was  therefore  eager  to  avail  himself  of 
an  opportunity  for  carrying  out  these  views.  In  1860,  in 
behalf  of  a  committee  of  gentlemen  who  had  become  interested 
in  the  subject,  he  drew  up  a  scheme  entitled  "  Object  and  Plan 
of  an  Institute  of  Technology,"  embracing  a  society  of  arts,  a 
museum  of  arts,  and  a  school  of  industrial  science;  and  he 
subsequently  addressed  a  memorial  to  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  urging  the  establishment  of  such  an  institution. 
Finally,  in  1862,  a  charter  for  the  "Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology  "  was  granted,  and  Prof.  Rogers  was  placed  at  its 
head.  A  whole  square  of  land  on  Back  Bay  was  granted  for 
building  purposes — one  third  to  the  Boston  Society  of  Natural 
History,  the  other  two  thirds  to  the  Institute  of  Technology. 
Accompanied  by  Mrs.  Rogers  he  went  to  Europe  in  1864  to 
collect  models  of  machinery  and  apparatus  for  the  use  of  the 
school.  The  detailed  plan  for  the  departments  of  the  school, 
prepared  by  Prof.  Rogers  in  that  year,  has  been  carried  out, 
with  but  slight  modifications.  A  marked  feature  of  this  plan, 
which  has  since  been  adopted  in  many  other  institutions,  was 
the  introduction  of  laboratory  teaching,  not  only  in  the  de- 
partment of  chemistry,  but  in  that  of  physics,  mechanics,  and 
mining,  a  feature  which  has  contributed  largely  to  the  reputa- 


416  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

tion  which  the  school  has  acquired  for  thoroughness  of  scientific 
training. 

The  success  of  the  institute,  based  upon  no  sentimental  or 
traditionary  regard  for  its  subjects  of  instruction,  but  upon 
the  service  that  it  has  been  able  to  render  to  the  country,  is 
the  best  testimonial  to  the  wisdom  of  its  founder.  Among  the 
technical  schools  in  the  United  States  there  is  none  higher. 
Students  have  resorted  to  it  in  constantly  increasing  numbers, 
so  that  department  after  department  has  outgrown  the  ac- 
commodations provided  for  it.  Its  graduates  may  be  found 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  doing  valuable 
work  as  civil,  mechanical,  and  mining  engineers,  chemists, 
architects,  or  teachers  of  these  professions,  for  which  the  sound 
training  of  the  institute  has  excellently  qualified  them.  The 
considerable  endowments  which  this  institution  has  gradually 
accumulated  testify  to  the  respect  which  it  has  won  among  the 
promoters  of  the  scientific  arts.  The  institute  embodies  the 
general  attitude  of  William  Rogers  toward  science.  He  always 
had  a  strong  interest  in  the  economic  side  of  his  field  of  labour. 
Those  investigations  had  a  doubled  attraction  for  his  mind 
which  promised  to  place  new  resources  at  the  disposal  of  man- 
kind. Hence  in  establishing  this  noble  school  of  applied 
science  he  erected  his  only  adequate  and  most  appropriate 
monument. 

After  the  establishment  of  the  institute  the  activity  of 
Prof.  Rogers  was  governed  by  the  fluctuations  of  his  health- 
For  the  first  few  years,  besides  being  president  of  the  institu- 
tion, he  filled  the  chair  of  Physics  and  Geology.  Ill  health 
caused  him  to  resign  the  presidency  in  1870,  but  having  partly 
regained  his  strength  in  1878  he  was  induced  to  accept  it  again. 
Three  years  later  infirmity  compelled  him  to  relinquish  it 
finally. 

His  death  occurred  within  the  walls  of  the  noble  institu- 
tion that  he  had  created.  On  Commencement  Day,  May  30, 
1882,  the  end  came  while  he  was  delivering  an  address.  "  Thus 
was  closed,"  says  Dr.  Ruschenberger,  "  probably  without  pain, 
his  bright  career.  He  had  fairly  won  and  received  all  the 
compliments  and  honours  that  a  votary  of  science  in  this 
country  can  win;  and  he  was  universally  esteemed  in  private 
life  on  account  of  his  probity,  urbanity,  and  social  accomplish- 
ments." 


WILLIAM   BARTON   ROGERS.  417 

Prof.  Rogers  was  a  member  of  all  the  prominent  scientific 
societies  in  the  United  States,  and  had  been  an  officer  in  many 
of  them.  He  was  chairman  of  the  Association  of  American 
Geologists  and  Naturalists  in  1845,  and  again  in  1847,  when 
it  was  expanded  into  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  at  the  first  meeting  of  which  he  pre- 
sided until  it  was  fully  organized.  He  was  also  elected  presi- 
dent of  the  American  Association  for  its  meeting  in  ^876,  and 
was  a  corresponding  member  of  the  British  Association.  He 
was  corresponding  secretary  of  the  American  Academy  of 
Arts  and  Sciences  from  1863  to  1869.  After  taking  up  his 
residence  in  Boston  he  joined  the  Thursday  Evening  Scientific 
Club,  of  that  city,  and  was  its  president  for  a  number  of 
years.  When  Joseph  Henry  died  in  1878,  Prof.  Rogers  was 
elected  to  succeed  him  as  President  of  the  National  Academy 
of  Science.  He  was  active  in  founding  the  American  Social 
Science  Association,  and  was  its  first  president. 

Among  the  honours  paid  to  him  was  the  degree  of  LL.  D. 
from  Harvard  College  in  1866.  In  the  following  year  he  was 
appointed  commissioner  to  represent  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts at  the  Paris  Exposition,  and  spent  the  summer  at  the 
French  capital. 

But  this  inventory  of  the  life  work  of  Prof.  Rogers,  exten- 
sive and  interesting  as  it  is,  leaves  out  a  powerful  element  of 
the  influence  he  has  exerted  as  a  teacher  over  great  numbers 
of  young  men  who  have  been  brought  within  the  spell  of  his  per- 
sonality. Prof.  Rogers  was  an  orator  of  the  first  class,  and  was 
long  regarded  as  the  most  impressive  and  delightful  speaker 
that  appeared  before  the  American  Association.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  science  puts  oratory  to  its  highest  test ; 
it  is  a  field  in  which  reason  is  supreme,  and  where  the  speaker 
is  not  at  liberty  to  throw  logic  to  the  winds,  and  make  a  fiery 
appeal  to  the  feelings  and  passions  of  listeners.  The  scientific 
orator  must  address  intelligent  men,  habituated  to  think  for 
themselves,  on  the  alert  against  tricks  that  carry  the  imagi- 
nation, while  the  speaker  himself  is  kept  under  the  close  re- 
straints of  fact.  To  be  able  to  captivate  and  enchain  an  audi- 
ence in  the  pure  work  of  exposition,  to  fascinate  in  teaching, 
is  a  triumph  of  oratorical  ability.  Prof.  Rogers  was  marked 
by  the  possession  of  this  rare  gift,  and  before  his  classes  in 
college,  whether  treating  of  rocks,  physical  forces,  or  rigid 


4i 8  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

principles  of  mathematics,  he  was  always  able  to  kindle  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  students,  and  make  the  most  vivid  and  last- 
ing impressions  upon  their  minds.  We  were  not  surprised, 
therefore,  to  note,  in  a  Virginia  newspaper,  an  exciting  descrip- 
tion of  the  way  Prof.  Rogers  was  received  by  his  old  students 
at  the  semi-centennial  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  where  he 
"  was  the  central  object,  on  whom  were  fixed  the  eyes  and 
hearts  of  the  great  concourse  there  assembled  from  all  parts 
of  the  country.  It  was  difficult  to  get  near  enough  to  speak 
to  him,  surrounded  as  he  was  by  such  numbers  of  those  who 
in  years  long  past  had  attended  his  lectures."  He  made  an 
address,  the  reception  of  which  was  described  by  the  writer 
with  a  pardonable  warmth :  "  At  the  dinner  of  the  alumni, 
Prof.  Rogers  addressed  them  in  a  speech  of  half  an  hour.  It 
was  a  wonderful  specimen  of  eloquence.  The  old  students 
beheld  before  them  the  same  William  B.  Rogers  who,  thirty-five 
years  before,  had  held  them  spellbound  in  his  class  of  natural 
philosophy ;  and  as  the  great  orator  warmed  up,  these  men  for- 
got their  age ;  they  were  again  young,  and  showed  their  enthu- 
siasm as  wildly  as  in  the  days  of  yore,  enraptured  by  his  elo- 
quence, they  made  the  lecture  room  of  the  university  ring  with 
their  applause.  Such  was  the  effect  produced  by  the  off-hand 
words  of  this  distinguished  man  of  science  and  unrivalled 
orator ;  and  those  who  have  heard  him  in  his  moments  of 
inspiration  will  not  wonder  at  the  account  we  have  given." 


CHARLES   UPHAM   SHEPARD 


CHARLES    UPHAM    SHEPARD. 

1804-1886. 

CHARLES  UPHAM  SHEPARD  was  born  at  Little  Compton,  a 
town  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  Rhode  Island,  June  29, 
1804.  His  father  was  the  Rev.  Mase  Shepard,  the  pastor  for 
thirty-four  years  of  the  Congregational  Church  of  that  place. 
His  mother,  Deborah  Haskins,  came  from  a  highly  intelligent 
Boston  family,  from  which  sprang  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  and 
other  well-known  men.  It  was  in  the  little  country  home 
that  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  which  so  marked  the  later  char- 
acter of  the  son,  was  developed.  Of  his  father  he  has  written  : 
"  His  manners  were  attractive  and  his  entire  address  dignified. 
In  particular,  his  sense  of  the  proprieties  of  clerical  deport- 
ment and  appearance  was  extremely  nice.  It  comprehended  all 
the  appointments  about  his  home.  My  father  greatly  enjoyed 
social  intercourse,  and  in  turn  made  himself  very  agreeable  to 
others.  There  was  an  unfailing  cheerfulness  in  his  conversa- 
tion, attended  by  a  remarkable  abstention  from  every  approach 
even  to  undue  criticism  or  detraction.  This  praiseworthy  trait 
was  equally  shared  by  my  mother."  Thus  were  implanted  in 
the  boy  those  traits  which  endeared  him  to  all  and  made  him 
not  only  an  agreeable  associate,  but  an  example  to  others. 

He  was  fitted  for  college  in  the  Providence  Grammar 
School  and  entered  Brown  University  in  1820,  but  left  the 
following  year  to  join  the  sophomore  class  of  the  new  college 
which  opened  then  at  Amherst,  Mass.  He  was  graduated  in 
due  course  in  the  class  of  1824.  In  a  graphic  sketch  of  Am- 
herst College  as  it  was  during  his  student  days,  contributed  to 
Prof.  Tyler's  History,  Prof.  Shepard  has  said  : 

"  I  remember  that  I  was  the  youngest  of  my  class.  Most 
of  my  fellows  were  mature  youths  who  did  not  appear  to  me 
youths  at  all — seniors  in  character  and  manlike  in  purpose, 
with  an  air  which  seemed  to  tell  of  years  of  yearning  for  the 

419 


420 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


ministry,  and  of  a  brave  struggle  with  the  poverty  which  had 
kept  them  from  their  goal."  After  a  description  of  the  village 
and  the  mode  of  life  in  it,  Prof.  Shepard  continues  :  "  With 
such  surroundings,  what  now  were  our  interior  advantages  ? 
Whatever  we  may  have  represented  them  to  outsiders,  what- 
ever we  may  have  persuaded  ourselves  concerning  them,  they 
were,  in  my  day,  extremely  meagre.  The  teachers  were  few, 
and  in  general  were  not  distinguished  in  their  departments. 
Our  library  did  not  surpass  the  scholarly  range  of  a  country 
clergyman  in  fair  circumstances.  Apparatus  and  collections 
were  unknown  in  our  first  year,  and  they  had  made  but  feeble 
beginnings  before  our  graduation.  The  only  lectures  which  I 
remember  were  the  two  annual  courses  of  Prof.  Amos  Eaton, 
in  his  day  a  distinguished  botanist  and  geologist. 

"  In  Dr.  Moore,  a  gentleman  of  suave  manners,  of  true 
Christian  dignity,  and  of  singular  judgment  in  managing 
youth,  we  had  an  admirable  president.  I  venture  to  suspect 
that  he  was  the  only  college  president  in  the  United  States 
who,  from  the  beginning,  personally  subscribed  for  the  some- 
what expensive  numbers  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Institu- 
tion of  London.  From  this  source,  and  others  similar,  he  ap- 
pears to  have  gained  a  prevision  of  the  importance  of  the 
modern  sciences  in  education,  and  to  him  mainly  are  we  in- 
debted for  the  early  foothold  which  they  gained  in  the  institu- 
tion ;  to  him,  at  all  events,  we  owed  the  presence  of  Prof. 
Eaton.  Rarely  has  college  lecturer  been  more  faithfully  and 
enthusiastically  listened  to  than  Prof.  Eaton  in  his  course  on 
chemistry  and  botany,  together  with  his  abridged  course  on 
zoology.  To  supply  the  place  of  a  text-book  on  the  last-men- 
tioned branch,  he  furnished  us  a  highly  useful  printed  sylla- 
bus, drawn  mainly  from  the  great  work  of  Cuvier,  then  wholly 
inaccessible  to  us.  ...  There  were  doubtless  deficiencies  to 
be  regretted.  In  the  larger  and  older  universities  we  might 
have  found  better  teachers  and  richer  stores  of  libraries  and 
collections,  but  in  some  unknown  way,  perhaps  in  the  enthu- 
siasm of  comparatively  solitary  effort,  compensation  was  made ; 
and  on  the  whole  we  may  doubt  whether  higher  life  success 
would  have  attended  us  had  we  launched  from  other  ports." 

For  a  year  after  graduation  he  studied  botany  and  miner- 
alogy with  Thomas  Nuttall  at  Cambridge,  and  during  most  of 
this  time  taught  the  same  branches  in  Boston.  His  study  of 


CHARLES   UPHAM   SHEPARD.  421 

mineralogy  led  to  the  preparation  of  papers  on  that  subject 
which  he  sent  to  the  American  Journal  of  Science,  and  in  this 
manner  he  became  acquainted  with  its  editor,  the  elder  Silli- 
man.  He  was  invited  in  1827  to  become  Prof.  Silliman's  assist- 
ant, and  continued  as  such  till  1831.  For  a  year  of  this  time 
he  was  Curator  of  Franklin  Hall,  an  institution  that  was 
established  by  James  Brewster  in  New  Haven  for  popular 
lectures  on  scientific  subjects  to  mechanics. 

In  1830  he  was  appointed  to  a  lectureship  in  natural  his- 
tory at  Yale,  which  he  held  till  1847.  In  the  winter  of  1832- 
1 833  he  investigated  the  culture  of  sugar  cane  and  the  manu- 
facture of  sugar  in  the  Southern  States,  his  results  being  in- 
corporated in  Prof.  Silliman's  report  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury. 

His  investigation  in  the  sugar  States  led  to  his  appoint- 
ment, in  1834,  as  Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  South  Carolina 
Medical  College,  at  Charleston.  This  position  required  his 
residence  in  the  South  for  only  part  of  the  year,  so  that  he 
was  able  to  continue  his  lectures  at  Yale  and  to  accept,  in 
1835,  an  appointment  as  associate  to  Dr.  James  G.  Percival  on 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Connecticut. 

It  was  in  the  darkest  hours  of  Amherst  College,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1844,  that  Prof.  Edward  Hitchcock  was  raised  to  the 
presidency  of  that  institution,  and  in  order  to  provide  for  the 
partial  vacancy  thus  created  in  his  department,  Charles  U. 
Shepard,  of  New  Haven,  was  elected  Professor  of  Chemistry 
and  Natural  History,  this  election  "  to  take  effect  provided 
Prof.  Hitchcock  accepts  the  presidency."  Both  appointments 
were  accepted.  Prof.  Shepard  entered  upon  his  new  duties  in 
the  following  year.  Only  two  years  were  needed  under  Presi- 
dent Hitchcock's  able  management  to  restore  prosperity  to  the 
college.  Prof.  Shepard,  being  then  satisfied  that  Amherst 
would  be  able  to  afford  him  a  permanent  field  of  labour, 
severed  his  connection  with  Yale  and  offered  to  bring  his 
valuable  collections  to  Amherst  if  the  college  would  house 
them  in  a  fireproof  building  and  consider  the  purchase  of 
them  when  it  was  able.  This  proposition  was  gladly  ac- 
cepted. 

As  an  instructor,  he  at  once  communicated  to  his  students 
his  own  zeal,  unless,  perhaps,  the  ground  was  unfertile,  in 
which  case  he  would  plainly  but  politely  suggest  the  desira- 


422 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


bility  of  their  devoting  themselves  to  more  congenial  studies. 
His  devotion  to  his  subject  rendered  him  averse  to  calling  the 
roll.  As  a  lecturer  his  manner  was  easy  and  self-forgetful ; 
his  success  in  imparting  knowledge  was  due  to  his  earnestly  en- 
deavouring to  uplift  his  listeners'  minds,  but  at  the  same  time 
neither  to  discourage  nor  weary  them.  Imitating  Faraday, 
his  manner  was  that  of  a  gentleman  returned  from  an  inter- 
esting travel  narrating  to  his  friends  some  of  the  delights  he 
had  experienced. 

His  professorship  was  divided  in  1852,  when  the  college 
became  able  to  have  a  separate  Professor  of  Chemistry.  Prof. 
Shepard  continued  to  deliver  the  lectures  on  natural  history 
till  1877,  when  he  was  made  professor  emeritus.  After  leaving 
Amherst  his  northern  home  was  at  New  Haven  for  the  rest  of 
his  life. 

The  following  history  of  the  growth  of  Prof.  Shepard's 
collections  was  written  by  him  for  the  History  of  Amherst 
College,  at  the  request  of  Dr.  Tyler  : 

"  My  mineralogical  cabinet  was  commenced  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  while  a  member  of  the  Providence  Grammar  School, 
and  was  brought  with  me  when  I  left  Brown  University  to 
join  the  sophomore  class  of  Amherst  institution  in  1821.  An 
early  visit  after  my  arrival  here  to  the  tourmaline  and  other 
localities  of  Chesterfield  and  Goshen  served  to  increase  my 
eagerness  as  a  collector,  and  at  the  same  time  placed  me  in 
possession  of  abundant  materials  for  exchange.  In  1823  my 
identification  of  the  previously  supposed  white  augite  of 
Goshen  with  the  species  spodumene,  gave  me  confidence  in 
the  study  of  minerals,  while  it  increased  my  stock  of  speci- 
mens desirable  tcr  mineralogists.  The  exchange  I  then  carried 
on  with  the  Austrian  consul-general,  Baron  von  Lederer,  in 
behalf  of  his  own  collection  and  that  of  the  Imperial  Cabinet 
of  Vienna,  rapidly  enriched  my  little  museum  in  foreign  min- 
erals. Indeed,  from  the  first  it  was  sufficiently  an\ple  to  serve 
a  useful  purpose  in  the  instruction  of  beginners,  and  was  the 
sole  resource  of  Prof.  Amos  Eaton  in  the  lectures  he  gave 
during  two  seasons  before  the  students  of  the  institution. 

"  On  leaving  college  I  resided  a  year  partly  in  Cambridge 
and  partly  in  Boston,  during  which  period  I  profited  much  in 
extending  my  collections,  through  visits  to  new  localities  in 
eastern  Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and  still  more  by 


CHARLES   UPHAM   SHEPARD.  423 

exchanges  with  Prof.  Nuttall  and  other  active  cultivators  of 
mineralogy  in  the  region.  I  soon  after  made  a  very  successful 
tour  into  Maine,  where,  at  Paris,  I  was  the  fortunate  discov- 
erer of  the  most  remarkable  green  and  red  tourmalines  then 
known.  With  some  of  these  I  made  profitable  exchanges 
with  the  British  Museum  and  other  large  collections.  My 
association  in  1828  with  Prof.  Silliman  as  his  assistant,  and 
afterward  with  the  college  as  a  lecturer  on  natural  science  for 
many  years,  afforded  me  unusual  facilities  for  the  extension 
of  my  cabinet.  All  the  best  localities  of  Connecticut  were 
frequently  visited,  specimens  of  rare  interest  secured,  and  the 
means  of  supplying  scientific  correspondents  abundantly  ob- 
tained. These  objects  were  still  further  effected  by  journeys 
into  adjoining  States  and  the  Canadas,  until  1835,  when  I  be- 
came Professor  of  Chemistry  in  the  Medical  College  of  the 
State  of  South  Carolina,  where  a  new  and  very  ample  field 
was  opened  for  the  extension  of  my  collections.  From  that 
time  to  the  present  [1871],  with  the  exception  of  the  period 
of  the  civil  war,  I  have  passed  nearly  the  half  of  each  year 
in  the  South,  and  been  engaged  to  a  considerable  extent  in 
scientific  and  mining  explorations,  which  have  resulted  in 
varied  and  rich  contributions  to  my  cabinet.  These  travels 
have  also  embraced  the  Western  or  Mississippi  States,  attended 
by  similar  results.  But  most  of  all  have  I  gained  by  frequent 
excursions  to  the  Old  World,  having  since  1839  twelve  times 
visited  Europe,  where  my  exchanges  and  purchases  of  speci- 
mens have  been  conducted  on  a  scale,  I  am  led  to  believe,  not 
surpassed  by  any  of  my  countrymen.  Numbers,  however, 
have  never  been  my  aim  in  these  acquisitions.  I  have  rather 
sought  what  was  characteristic  and  instructive — not,  however, 
to  the  neglect  of  the  rare  and  beautiful." 

The  foregoing  relates  to  the  mineralogical  part  of  Prof. 
Shepard's  collections ;  his  geological  cabinet  was  also  impor- 
tant, being  especially  remarkable  for  fossil  remains.  The 
meteoric  collection,  begun  in  1828,  he  stated  to  be  the  fourth 
in  extent  and  value  known  at  the  time  of  writing. 

As  to  the  transfer  of  the  combined  cabinets  to  Amherst 
College,  Prof.  Shepard  continues : 

"  The  removal  of  these  collections  from  New  Haven  to 
Amherst,  in  1847,  was  the  result  of  an  understanding  entered 
into  between  President  Hitchcock  and  myself,  that  if  the 


424 


PIONEERS   OF    SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


college  would  cause  a  fireproof  building  to  be  erected  for  their 
reception,  I  would  deposit  them  therein,  at  least  for  a  term 
of  years,  and  with  the  hope,  through  arrangements  afterward 
to  be  made,  of  leaving  them  with  the  college  as  a  permanent 
possession.  Such  a  building  was  provided  in  the  Woods  Cab- 
inet ;  and,  more  recently,  the  conditions  for  the  purchase  of 
the  collections  have  been  agreed  upon."  When  he  wrote  the 
above  he  was  engaged  in  the  more  perfect  cataloguing  and 
arranging  of  the  three  collections. 

When  Walker  Hall  was  built,  the  mineralogical  cabinet 
was  removed  to  rooms  in  that  building,  and  was  destroyed 
when  the  building  was  burned,  in  March,  1882.  Although  few 
could  be  classed  as  combustibles,  a  diligent  search  in  the  de- 
bris of  the  building  revealed  scarcely  a  trace  of  the  specimens. 
This  was  a  sad  loss.  Prof.  Shepard  valued  the  collection  at 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  and  the  college  had  actually 
paid  forty  thousand  dollars  for  it.  There  was  only  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  of  insurance  on  the  whole  contents  of  the 
building. 

Dr.  Shepard  held  his  professorship  at  Charleston  uninter- 
ruptedly until  the  civil  war,  and  immediately  after  it  closed 
he  went  back,  at  the  urgent  invitation  of  his  former  col- 
leagues, and  resumed  his  lectures.  In  1869  he  retired  from  the 
full  discharge  of  his  duties,  but  continued  to  give  some  lec- 
tures until  shortly  before  his  death.  While  in  Charleston  he 
discovered  rich  deposits  of  phosphate  of  lime  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  that  city.  Their  great  value  in  agriculture  and  sub- 
sequent use  in  the  manufacture  of  superphosphate  fertilizers 
proved  an  important  addition  to  the  chemical  industries  of 
South  Carolina. 

The  collection  that  was  burned  in  1882  was  the  finest  in 
the  United  States,  and  was  surpassed  abroad  only  by  that  in 
the  British  Museum.  But  Dr.  Shepard's  collecting  had  not 
stopped  with  its  formation,  and  he  succeeded  before  his  death 
in  gathering  a  second  cabinet  of  meteorites  and  minerals 
which  ranked  among  the  very  largest  private  collections. 
This  he  kept  in  a  fireproof  cabinet  at  his  private  residence  in 
New  Haven. 

The  influence  of  his  early  home  culture  was  clearly  marked 
in  Prof.  Shepard.  To  such  a  degree  was  he  distinguished  in 
all  the  characteristics  of  a  gentleman  that  he  was  called  upon 


CHARLES   UPHAM   SHEPARD.  425 

by  both  Northern  and  Southern  classes  to  address  them  on 
the  subject  of  "  manners  " ;  and  it  may  not  be  amiss  to  quote 
from  one  of  these  lectures,  as  presenting  a  mirror  of  his  own 
life  :  "  As  the  dress  of  a  gentleman  is  quiet  and  unpretentious, 
his  conversation  in  public  places  and  among  strangers  is 
equally  subdued.  Good  manners,  though  often  favoured  by  a 
happy  constitution,  do  not  proceed  from  a  single  root,  much 
less  do  they  arise  spontaneously  from  any  soil.  They  are  com- 
plex in  their  origin,  and  result  to  a  great  degree  from  the  most 
sedulous  culture.  He  who  aspires  to  be  a  gentleman  has  an  in- 
tricate problem  to  solve,  an  up-hill  path  to  tread.  An  occa- 
sional smile  however  bland,  obeisances  and  salaams  be  they 
ever  so  Oriental,  flatteries  the  most  Parisian,  the  wardrobe  of 
Beau  Brummel  himself,  the  nice  punctilios  and  etiquettes  of 
courts,  will  not  of  themselves  serve  the  purpose.  Other  things 
vastly  more  weighty  are  demanded,  such  as  strict  honour,  self- 
command,  forbearance,  and  refined  feelings;  a  character  in 
which  all  meanness  and  peevishness  are  unknown,  and  where 
candour,  veracity,  moral  and  physical  courage  and  dignity  are 
never  for  a  moment  in  abeyance."  After  noting  several  mat- 
ters of  conduct,  he  continues :  "  The  most  natural  beginning 
in  our  work  will  be  an  attention  to  those  causes  which  affect 
the  health.  If  there  is  neglect  here  grievous  must  be  the  fail- 
ure elsewhere ;  for  what  superstructure  can  you  erect  upon  a 
shattered  constitution  ?  The  gentleman  is  required  first  to 
know  what  belongs  to  complete  living  in  this  world.  Vigor- 
ous health  and  its  accompanying  high  spirits  are  larger  ele- 
ments in  gentlemanly  character  and  general  happiness  than 
any  other  things  whatever." 

A  most  striking  feature  of  his  after  life  was  the  realization 
of  his  boyish  dream  as  portrayed  in  his  thesis  entitled  The  En- 
thusiasm of  the  Naturalist,  which  he  read  on  graduating.  The 
material  features  of  extensive  travel,  of  unusual  opportunities 
for  the  acquisition  of  specimens,  and  the  happiness  of  being 
able  to  increase  the  world's  knowledge — these  were  the  minor 
points.  Of  greater  joy  to  him  and  to  those  who  loved  him 
were  his  youthful  enthusiasm  and  the  delights  which  lingered 
to  the  very  last ;  when,  after  expressing  devout  gratitude  for 
his  joyous  life,  he  yearned  to  be  free  from  the  limitations  of 
earth  and  time.  Mineralogy  was  beautiful  to  him.  He  loved 
her  every  perfect  specimen ;  his  mind  dwelt  on  its  origin  and 
28 


426  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE    IN  AMERICA. 

occurrence.  It  was  an  individuality  to  him.  His  keen  eye 
distinguished  differences  which  others  could  not  detect.  To 
his  loved  specimens  he  might  always  turn  with  relief  when 
sorely  pressed  by  affliction  or  other  misfortune. 

Prof.  Shepard  died,  after  a  short  illness,  at  Charles- 
ton, May  i,  1886.  He  left  two  children,  a  son  and  a 
daughter. 

In  its  obituary  the  Charleston  News  said  of  him :  "  He 
chose  his  profession  well.  A  mind  so  analytic  as  his  and  so 
keen  in  the  perception  of  relations  could  not  have  failed  to 
see  that  the  field  in  which  he  cast  his  literary  fortunes  was 
one  which  offered  an  undying  reward  for  those  who  made  it  a 
successful  arena  of  untiring  and  indomitable  labour  and 
energy.  .  .  .  Prof.  Shepard  discovered  more  new  species  of 
minerals  which  have  attained  permanent  recognition  than 
perhaps  any  other  scientist  of  the  present  day.  He  was  a 
member  of  many  American  and  foreign  societies,  among 
which  are  the  Imperial  Society  of  Natural  Science  of  St. 
Petersburg,  the  Royal  Society  of  Gottingen,  and  the  Society 
of  Natural  Sciences  of  Vienna.  He  published  a  Treatise  on 
Mineralogy  (1832  and  1835),  a  report  on  the  Geology  of  Con- 
necticut, and  numerous  scientific  papers."  Many  reports  on 
mines  made  by  him  have  been  printed. 

He  announced  in  1835  his  discovery  of  his  first  new  species 
of  microlite,  that  of  warwickite  in  1838,  that  of  danburite  in 
1839,  and  he  afterward  described  many  other  new  minerals 
until  shortly  before  his  death.  His  knowledge  of  minerals 
was  wonderfully  extensive,  "  and  he  was  hence  ready,"  it  has 
been  said,  "  with  quick  judgments  as  to  new  and  old ;  some- 
times too  quick — but  in  any  case  imparting  progress  to  Ameri- 
can mineralogy."  The  honorary  degree  of  M.  D.  was  con- 
ferred upon  him  by  Dartmouth  in  1836,  and  that  of  LL.  D. 
by  Amherst  in  1857. 

Prof.  Shepard's  son,  Charles  Upham,  was  born  at  New 
Haven,  October  4,  1842.  He  was  graduated  from  Yale  Col- 
lege in  1863,  and  took  the  degree  of  M.  D.  at  Gottingen  in 
1867.  He  succeeded  to  his  father's  professorship  at  Charles- 
ton, and  has  been  active  in  developing  the  phosphate  and 
other  chemical  industries  of  South  Carolina.  In  1887  he 
presented  the  second  cabinet  of  minerals  that  was  formed 
by  his  father,  numbering  more  than  ten  thousand  specimens, 


CHARLES  UPHAM  SHEPARD. 


427 


to  Amherst  College,  and  his  cabinet  of  representatives  of 
more  than  two  hundred  different  meteorites  has  been  de- 
posited in  the  United  States  National  Museum.  During  the 
past  few  years  he  has  devoted  himself  to  the  experimental  cul- 
tivation of  tea  on  his  plantation  near  Summerville,  S.  C.,  where 
he  has  extensive  gardens  of  the  leading  varieties. 


SEARS   COOK   WALKER. 

1805-1853. 

A  FEW  years  before  the  middle  of  the  present  century  the 
condition  of  science  in  America  was  far  from  inspiring.  Al- 
though this  country  had  long  since  ceased  to  be  a  dependency 
of  Great  Britain  politically,  it  still  seemed  unable  to  rise  out 
of  such  a  position  intellectually.  In  science  and  letters  Eng- 
lish authority  was  paramount.  To  the  generality  of  American 
scholars  a  grudging  mention  in  an  English  publication  out- 
weighed domestic  honours  of  a  much  higher  grade.  Scientific 
treatises  emanating  from  Great  Britain  were  accepted  as 
gospel,  while  the  science  of  the  rest  of  Europe  was  known 
only  through  British  translations.  There  were  a  few  men  of 
science,  however,  who  were  independent  in  the  midst  of  de- 
pendency, and  among  them  one  of  the  most  active  in  promot- 
ing this  intellectual  self-respect,  both  by  his  researches  and  his 
writings,  was  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch. 

Sears  Cook  Walker  was  born  March  28,  1805,  in  Wilming- 
ton, a  small  town  of  Massachusetts,  about  sixteen  miles  north- 
west of  Boston,  where  four  generations  of  his  ancestors  had 
lived  and  died.  His  father's  mother  was  descended  in  a  direct 
line  from  the  celebrated  Elder  Brewster,  who  came  over  in 
the  Mayflower.  Sears  was  a  delicate  child  and  so  precocious 
intellectually  that  he  early  became  the  wonder  of  the  village. 
His  father  had  died  when  he  was  a  mere  infant,  so  that  his 
whole  care  and  training  devolved  upon  his  mother.  She  for- 
tunately realized  the  importance  of  providing  for  his  physical 
welfare  and'checking  his  too  great  fondness  for  books.  It  was 
a  constant  struggle  with  the  boy's  natural  inclinations  to  do 
this,  but  the  effort  was  successful.  He  joined  heartily  in  many 
of  the  sports  of  his  companions,  and  gradually  gained  a  good 
measure  of  health  and  strength. 

Young  Walker  took  the  studies  preparatory  for  college  at 


SEARS    COOK    WALKER. 


SEARS   COOK  WALKER. 


429 


the  academies  of  Andover,  Tyngsborough,  and  Billerica ;  then 
went  to  Harvard,  where  he  was  graduated  in  the  class  of  1825. 
Immediately  after  his  graduation  he  took  up  teaching  as  an  oc- 
cupation and  followed  it  for  ten  years — the  first  two  years  in 
the  vicinity  of  Boston  and  the  rest  of  the  time  in  Philadelphia. 
From  1836  to  1845  ^e  was  actuary  of  the  Pennsylvania  Com- 
pany for  the  Insurance  of  Lives  and  Granting  Annuities.  His 
life  in  Philadelphia  was  a  period  of  prosperity  and  comfort ; 
he,  moreover,  early  took  on  a  corpulent  habit  of  body,  so  that 
whatever  influence  his  circumstances  exerted  was  adverse  to 
any  strenuous  intellectual  exertions,  and  to  the  obtaining  of 
adequate  physical  exercise.  Yet  his  mind  was  one  that  could 
not  be  idle.  "  While  engaged  with  his  school,"  says  Benjamin 
A.  Gould,  in  his  memorial  address,*  "  he  studied  medicine,  and 
went  through  the  whole  course  requisite  for  the  attainment  of 
a  degree.  He  devoted  his  leisure  for  a  period  to  the  study  of 
natural  history,  and  was  no  mean  proficient  in  geology  and 
mineralogy,  as  well  as  in  physics  and  chemistry.  He  was  an 
active  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Geological  Society,  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Franklin  Institute  on  Science  and  Art,  and 
one  of  the  most  useful  members  of  the  American  Philosophical 
Society.  By  frequent  articles  upon  scientific  topics  in  the 
various  prints,  by  elaborate  reports  upon  various  subjects  to 
the  Franklin  Institute,  and  by  monthly  announcements  in  its 
Journal  of  occultations  and  other  celestial  phenomena,  he  kept 
awake  the  interest  and  sympathy  of  the  community  for  studies 
of  this  character.  Among  other  labours,  he  prepared,  in  1834, 
an  ingenious  set  of  parallactic  tables,  by  which  the  time  re- 
quired for  computing  the  phases  of  an  occultation  was  reduced 
to  less  than  half  an  hour.  These  were  calculated  for  the  lati- 
tude of  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  his  intention  to  publish  them 
in  a  more  general  form  adapted  to  different  latitudes.  But,  as 
this  would  have  been  a  work  requiring  considerable  time,  he 
subsequently  abandoned  the  project,  believing  that  he  could 
employ  his  leisure  hours  more  usefully.  He  continued  the 
computation  of  the  occultations  without  interruption  for  six 


*  An  address  in  Commemoration  of  Sears  Cook  Walker,  delivered  before 
the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  at  its  meeting  in 
Washington,  April  29,  1854.  From  this  address  many  facts  concerning 
Walker's  life  and  work  in  addition  to  the  above  quotation  have  been  drawn. 


430 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 


years,  and  then  induced  our  well-known  colleague,  Mr.  Downes, 
to  undertake  the  continuance  of  the  work.  It  has  been  prose- 
cuted to  the  present  time,  with  what  success  we  all  know,  and 
has  of  late  years  been  published  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
and  the  Astronomical  Ephemeris.  Astronomy  and  geography 
in  America  are  much  indebted  to  Mr.  Walker  for  these  labours, 
since  many  already  in  possession  of  the  necessary  means  were 
stimulated  by  the  periodical  announcements,  and  by  his  per- 
sonal exertions  in  still  other  ways,  direct  and  indirect,  to  ob- 
serve these  phenomena.  An  extensive  series  of  such  observa- 
tions was  collected  by  Mr.  Walker  and  published  in  the  Proceed- 
ings of  the  American  Philosophical  Society." 

During  most  of  Walker's  residence  in  Philadelphia  he  must 
be  regarded  as  an  amateur  rather  than  a  scientist.  For  many 
years  his  interest  in  Nature  was  spread  over  several  fields,  but 
gradually  it  concentrated  upon  astronomy.  He  had  procured 
an  astronomical  clock,  a  twenty-inch  transit  instrument,  and  a 
small  Dollond  telescope,  and  from  about  the  time  when  he 
gave  up  his  school  to  become  actuary  of  the  insurance  com- 
pany all  his  leisure  was  devoted  to  astronomical  observation 
and  study.  "In  1837,"  Dr.  Gould's  account  continues,  "he 
was  invited  to  propose  a  plan  for  an  observatory  in  connection 
with  the  Philadelphia  High  School,  an  invitation  which  he  ac- 
cepted with  eagerness.  In  accordance  with  his  suggestion,  the 
committee  in  charge  of  the  school  imported  from  Munich  the 
excellent  Fraunhofer  equatorial  and  Ertel  meridian  circle 
which,  in  his  hands  and  those  of  his  accomplished  brother,  the 
present  director  of  the  observatory,  have  done  so  much  for 
astronomy  in  America — not  merely  by  the  number  of  observa- 
tions made  with  them,  but  also  by  the  incentive  which  they 
afforded  to  the  lovers  of  astronomy  in  other  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. It  is  unquestionable  that  in  several  instances  they  in- 
duced successful  efforts  for  the  procurement  of  similar  and 
even  superior  apparatus  elsewhere."  The  results  of  Walker's 
researches  appeared  from  time  to  time  in  the  publications  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  and  various  journals.  It  was 
in  1841  that  he  may  be  said  to  have  "  earned  his  spurs  "  by  a 
paper  on  the  periodical  meteors  of  August  and  November, 
which  for  many  years  remained  the  most  important  memoir  on 
the  subject  that  had  appeared.  From  that  time  on  he  is  to  be 
ranked  among  scientific  investigators. 


SEARS   COOK   WALKER.  43! 

In  1845  Mr.  Walker's  affairs  underwent  a  revolution.  Certain 
commercial  operations  turned  out  disastrously  and  entirely  be- 
reft him  of  means.  The  sense  of  defeat,  the  loss  of  luxuries  at 
a  time  of  life  when  habits  have  become  fixed,  together  with 
anxiety  for  the  future,  made  the  blow  a  hard  one.  But  it  re- 
vealed to  him,  and  to  the  world,  the  extent  of  his  own  scientific 
ability,  and  opened  the  way  to  higher  intellectual  gratifications, 
which  he  quickly  learned  to  appreciate.  The  Secretary  of  the 
Navy  offered  him  a  position  in  the  observatory  at  Washington, 
which  he  at  once  accepted.  Here,  for  the  first  time,  the 
facilities  which  his  special  gifts  required  were  at  his  disposal, 
and  he  immediately  proceeded  to  make  good  use  of  them. 
After  a  short  time  he  gave  up  his  position  at  the  observatory 
to  accept  the  direction  of  the  longitude  department  of  the 
Coast  Survey — an  office  which  he  ably  filled  until  his  last 
illness. 

Early  in  1847,  while  engaged  in  researches  upon  the  then 
newly  discovered  planet  Neptune,  he  became  convinced  that  a 
star  observed  by  Lalande  in  May,  1795,  must  have  been  this 
planet.  With  the  telescope  of  the  Naval  Observatory  Prof. 
Hubbard  confirmed  this  conjecture,  and  astronomers  were 
thus  furnished  with  an  observation  of  Neptune  made  fifty- 
two  years  before,  which  afforded  means  for  a  most  accurate 
determination  of  the  planet's  orbit.  The  American  was  none 
too  soon  to  secure  priority,  for,  quite  independently,  the  same 
important  fact  was  laboriously  hunted  down  in  Europe  by 
Petersen  only  a  few  weeks  later.  Walker  now  attacked  the 
problem  of  Neptune's  orbit ;  Benjamin  Peirce  was  at  the  same 
time  calculating  the  planet's  perturbations.  The  approximate 
results  of  each  furthered  the  computations  of  the  other,  so  that 
within  eighteen  months  from  the  discovery  of  the  planet  these 
two  Americans  had  attained  a  remarkably  accurate  statement 
of  its  theory. 

In  conjunction  with  Prof.  A.  D.  Bache,  Superintendent  of 
the  Coast  Survey,  Walker  developed  the  method  of  determin- 
ing differences  of  longitude  by  telegraph.  One  feature  in- 
troduced by  Walker  was  the  application  of  the  method  of  coin- 
cidence of  beats  to  the  comparison  of  timekeepers — one  indi- 
cating mean,  the  other  sidereal  time — at  the  two  ends  of  a 
telegraphic  line.  These  beats  were  signalled  from  one  station 
to  the  other  by  taps  of  an  observer  upon  the  telegraph  key. 


432  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

Such  signals  are,  of  course,  subject  to  the  errors  that  always 
attend  the  action  of  human  nerves  and  muscles,  so  the  next 
problem  was  to  make  the  clock  give  its  own  signals.  Two 
methods  had  been  proposed,  but  there  were  fears — groundless 
they  have  since  been  proved — that  either  of  these  would  in- 
juriously affect  the  running  of  the  clock.  Mr.  Walker  sought 
diligently  for  some  apparatus  that  would  not  arouse  any  such 
fears.  He  propounded  the  problem  to  several  astronomers, 
and  two  or  three  contrivances  were  devised  for  the  pur- 
pose. 

This  mode  of  observation  and  the  apparatus  invented  to 
meet  its  requirements  proved  valuable  not  alone  for  determi- 
nations of  longitude,  but  also  for  all  other  astronomical  obser- 
vations requiring  minute  precision  in  the  determination  of  time. 
The  mental  effort  required  of  the  observer  being  reduced  to  a 
minimum,  many  more  transits  could  be  observed  at  a  single 
meridian  passage.  Walker  immediately  modified  the  transit 
instrument  to  suit  the  new  requirements,  and,  instead  of  five, 
seven,  or  at  most  nine  threads,  he  provided  it  with  several 
tallies  of  five  threads  each.  There  remained  but  one  requisite 
to  complete  the  American  method  of  observation.  This  was 
some  mechanical  contrivance  for  securing  a  uniform  rotary  mo- 
tion of  the  record  sheet.  It  had  not  been  attained  when  Walker 
died,  although  some  progress  toward  the  solution  of  the  prob- 
lem had  been  made. 

It  is  proper  for  the  biographer  to  point  out  the  share  which 
Walker  personally  had  in  this  series  of  inventions,  although  he 
was  far  from  making  any  such  claims  for  himself.  With  a  fine 
comradeship  he  was  jealous  only  for  the  credit  of  the  organi- 
zation of  which  he  was  a  member — -the  United  States  Coast  Sur- 
vey. Speaking  to  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Walker  said :  "  With  the  single  exception  of  the 
experiment  between  Baltimore  and  Washington,  in  1844, 1  know 
of  no  telegraphic  operation  for  longitude,  and  of  no  step  in 
the  improvement  or  perfectionment  of  the  art,  in  Europe  or 
America,  which  has  not  been  the  work  of  the  officers  proper  of 
the  Coast  Survey,  or  of  commissioned  officers  and  civilians 
acting  temporarily  as  assistants.  ...  I  will  not  here  allude 
to  the  respective  claims  of  Americans  for  priority  or  superior 
excellence  of  inventions  and  suggestions,  believing  that  it  will 
be  becoming  for  all  of  us  to  look  to  the  great  work  that  has  been 


SEARS   COOK  WALKER.  433 

accomplished  by  our  united  efforts,  rather  than  to  the  single 
share  of  each." 

The  transmission  of  observations  by  telegraph  between 
Cambridge,  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Washington  furnished 
Walker  an  opportunity  for  another  important  discovery.  He 
found  that  an  appreciable  time  was  required  for  the  passage  of 
these  signals,  and  that  this  time  was  less  than  one  tenth  of  that 
required  for  the  passage  of  light  over  an  equal  distance  in 
space.  This  result  was  so  greatly  at  variance  with  the  ideas 
of  electricity  current  at  the  time  that  it  was  not  accepted  in 
America  until  the  celebrated  velocity  experiments  between  St. 
Louis  and  Washington  put  it  beyond  question,  and  even  after 
that  some  European  physicists  still  refused  to  be  convinced. 
While  the  matter  was  in  dispute  Walker  was  generous  with  aid 
and  encouragement  to  those  who  sought  to  test  his  discovery, 
whether  their  results  seemed  likely  to  conflict  with  or  to  con- 
firm his  own. 

The  English  Nautical  Almanac  for  1856  (issued  in  1853) 
contained  a  profound  discussion,  by  the  astronomer  Adams,  of 
the  amount  of  the  lunar  parallax.  In  this  paper  Adams  showed 
that  the  tables  of  Burckhardt,  which  had  been  the  standard 
ones,  contained  errors  sometimes  amounting  to  6",  and  pointed 
out  the  effect  that  such  errors-  must  have  upon  determinations 
of  longitude  from  occultations.  In  the  greater  part  of  this  dis- 
covery Walker  had  anticipated  the  renowned  Adams  by  more 
than  four  years.  In  April,  1848,  he  had  presented  to  his  chief 
in  the  Coast  Survey  a  report  on  longitudes  in  the  course  of 
which  he  pointed  out  the  chief  errors  of  Burckhardt's  tables, 
giving  four  out  of  the  five  principal  terms  with  remarkable 
precision. 

Mr.  Walker's  intellectual  labour  was  intense  and  unremit- 
ting ;  it  was  scarcely  interrupted  even  in  summer,  when  he  was 
accustomed  to  betake  himself  to  Cambridge,  to  escape  the  heat 
of  Washington.  During  one  of  these  summer  sojourns,  in  Au- 
gust, 1851,  he  suffered  a  slight  attack  of  paralysis,  which  for  a 
few  days  deprived  him  of  the  use  of  one  hand.  This  warning 
and  the  entreaties  of  his  friends  were  not  enough  to  induce 
him  to  relax  his  exertions.  In  the  following  autumn  he  took 
charge  of  the  expedition  for  determining  telegraphically  the 
differences  of  longitude  between  Halifax,  Bangor,  and  Cam- 
bridge. Immediately  after  his  return  to  Washington,  at  about 


434 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


the  end  of  December,  symptoms  of  mental  alienation  appeared, 
and  he  was  taken  to  the  hospital  at  Mount  Hope,  near  Balti- 
more. Thence  he  was  removed  in  the  following  April  to  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  where  under  the  skilful  care  of  Dr.  Buttolph,  the 
superintendent  of  the  institution,  his  disordered  brain  gradually 
regained  its  normal  tone.  Visits  of  friends,  correspondence  on 
the  subjects  of  his  researches,  and  finally  his  books  and  papers 
were  allowed  him.  While  still  at  Trenton  he  computed  the 
ephemeris  of  Neptune  for  the  American  Astronomical  Ephem- 
eris  of  1855.  In  the  fall  of  1852  Mr.  Walker  left  the  asylum 
apparently  cured,  although  much  debilitated  by  his  illness,  and 
went  to  Cincinnati  for  a  visit  to  his  brother,  Hon.  Timothy 
Walker,  intending  to  remain  until  the  following  spring.  He 
took  in  hand  certain  labours  for  the  Coast  Survey  and  pre- 
pared to  resume  in  full  his  former  sphere  of  activity.  He  had 
fixed  a  time  for  returning  to  Washington  and  re-engaged  his 
apartments  in  the  city,  but  he  was  not  destined  to  make  the 
journey.  An  attack  of  fever  was  followed  by  other  maladies, 
and  Walker  soon  found  himself  engaged  in  a  second  severe 
struggle  with  disease.  In  this  condition  Hamlet's  problem — 
"  To  be,  or  not  to  be  " — forced  itself  upon  his  thought  with 
all  its  puzzling  considerations.  The  sound  mind  in  a  sound 
body  can  give  but  one  reply  to  this  problem,  but  coming  as  it 
did  to  Walker  at  a  moment  when  Reason  was  not  firm  in  her 
seat,  it  elicited  the  opposite  response,  and  on  Jan.  30,  1853, 
he  launched  himself  into  the  mysterious  after-life.  His  re- 
mains were  placed  in  Spring  Grove  Cemetery,  near  Cin- 
cinnati. 

The  character  of  Sears  Walker  was  marked  by  a  childlike 
simplicity  which  many  persons  could  hardly  realize  was  not 
assumed  to  cover  shrewd  designs.  He  was  impulsive,  but  his 
impulses  were  always  noble  and  generous.  Highly  magnani- 
mous, he  was  always  prompt  to  acknowledge  an  error,  and  to 
overlook  not  only  mistakes  but  even  lapses  from  honour  and 
justice  in  others.  Intellectually  he  had  the  ability  of  genius. 
He  was  unadapted  and  disinclined  for  participation  in  the 
world's  affairs,  and  could  not  refrain  sufficiently  for  his  physical 
welfare  from  intellectual  labour. 

Although  his  fame  was  won  in  the  abstruse  field  of  mathe- 
matics, his  linguistic  attainments  were  of  a  high  order.  In  col- 
lege he  was  as  conspicuous  for  his  classical  as  for  his  mathe- 


SEARS   COOK   WALKER. 


435 


matical  ability.  During  his  years  of  teaching  his  knowledge  of 
the  languages  was  in  daily  use,  and  throughout  life  the  litera- 
tures of  Greece,  of^Rome,  and  of  Italy  were  a  source  of  enjoy- 
ment to  him.  His  powerfully  retentive  memory  was  stored 
with  long  passages  from  the  poets  of  the  past,  Tasso  being  his 
especial  favourite. 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE. 

1806-1867. 

THE  life  of  Alexander  Dallas  Bache  lends  support  to  the 
belief  that  what  a  man  is  to  be,  or,  rather,  what  he  is  capable 
of  being,  is  mainly  determined  by  what  his  parents  and  an- 
cestors have  been.  According  to  the  doctrine  of  heredity,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  Bache,  descended  from  illustrious  pro- 
genitors on  both  sides  of  his  family,  should  himself  achieve 
intellectual  eminence.  But  as  he  received  an  education  ad- 
mirably suited  to  the  work  he  was  to  perform,  his  career  gives 
little  help  in  answering  the  question  whether  heredity  is  or  is 
not  stronger  than  training. 

His  most  important  work  is  instructive  in  another  way.  It 
shows  how  effective  efforts  for  the  advancement  of  knowledge 
can  be  made  by  the  power  and  resources  of  a  great  govern- 
ment when  the  right  man  is  secured  to  direct  them,  just  as 
other  instances  have  made  plain  how  wasteful  and  demoraliz- 
ing such  efforts  may  become  when  unwisely  directed. 

Alexander  Dallas  Bache  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  July  19, 
1806.  His  father,  Richard  Bache,  was  a  grandson  of  Benjamin 
Franklin,  being  one  of  the  eight  children  of  Richard  Bache, 
Postmaster  General  from  1776  to  1782,  and  Franklin's  only 
daughter,  Sarah.  His  mother,  Sophia  Burret  (Dallas),  was  a 
daughter  of  Alexander  J.  Dallas,  who  was  Madison's  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  and  sister  of  George  M.  Dallas,  Vice-President 
of  the  United  States  in  Folk's  administration. 

Dallas  Bache,  as  he  was  usually  called  by  his  intimates,  was 
placed  in  a  classical  school  at  an  early  age,  and  proved  to  be  a 
remarkably  bright  pupil.  When  fifteen  years  old  he  was  ap- 
pointed a  cadet  in  the  Military  Academy  at  West  Point.  He 
maintained  a  high  stand  in  scholarship  from  the  beginning  to 
the  end  of  his  course,  and  graduated  in  1825  at  the  head  of 
his  class,  although  its  youngest  member.  This  was  no  small 

436 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE. 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE.          437 

achievement  in  a  class  from  which  four  cadets  were  assigned 
to  the  Engineer  Corps,  when  only  one  or  two  members  attained 
this  honour  in  most  classes.  Moreover,  he  went  through  the 
whole  four  years  without  receiving  a  demerit  mark — equally 
remarkable  in  view  of  the  rigid  discipline  of  the  academy,  and 
the  only  instance  on  record.  Students  are  generally  none  too 
prone  to  admire  one  of  their  fellows  who  is  noted  only  for  stu- 
dious habits  and  correct  deportment,  but  young  Bache  had  the 
personal  qualities  that  win  esteem.  Prof.  Joseph  Henry,  in  his 
memoir  read  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  relates 
of  cadet  Bache  that  "  his  superiority  in  scholarship  was  freely 
acknowledged  by  every  member  of  his  class,  while  his  unassum- 
ing manner,  friendly  demeanour,  and  fidelity  to  duty  secured 
him  the  affection  as  well  as  the  respect  not  only  of  his  fellow- 
pupils,  but  also  of  the  officers  of  the  institution.  It  is  also 
remembered  that  his  classmates,  with  instinctive  deference  to 
his  scrupulous  sense  of  propriety,  forbore  to  solicit  his  partici- 
pation in  any  amusement  which  in  the  slightest  degree  con- 
flicted with  the  rules  of  the  academy.  So  far  from  this,  they 
commended  his  course,  and  took  pride  to  themselves,  as  mem- 
bers of  his  class,  in  his  reputation  for  high  standing  and  ex- 
emplary conduct.  His  roommate — older  by  several  years  than 
he  was,  and  by  no  means  noted  for  regularity  or  studious  habits 
— constituted  himself,  as  it  were,  his  guardian,  and  sedulously 
excluded  all  visitors  or  other  interruptions  to  study  during  the 
prescribed  hours.  For  this  self-imposed  service,  gravely  ren- 
dered as  essential  to  the  honour  of  the  class,  he  was  accus- 
tomed jocularly  to  claim  immunity  for  his  own  delinquencies 
or  shortcomings. 

"  But  whatever  protection  others  might  require  on  account 
of  youth  and  inexperience,  young  Bache  needed  no  guardian 
to  keep  him  in  the  line  of  duty.  Impressed  beyond  his  years 
with  a  sense  of  the  responsibility  which  would  devolve  upon 
him  as  the  eldest  of  his  mother's  family,  entertaining  a  grave 
appreciation  of  the  obligations  involved  in  his  education  at  the 
national  academy,  he  resolved  from  the  first  to  devote  his  ener- 
gies to  the  utmost  in  qualifying  himself  for  the  duties  which  he 
might  be  called  upon  to  discharge,  whether  in  professional  or 
private  life.  Nor  was  he  uninfluenced  in  this  determination 
by  a  consciousness  that,  as  a  descendant  of  Franklin,  he  was 
in  a  certain  degree  an  object  of  popular  interest,  and  that  on 


438 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


this  account  something  more  than  an  ordinary  responsibility 
rested  upon  him." 

All  of  young  Bache's  predispositions  for  good  were  stimu- 
lated and  sustained  by  the  judicious  care  of  his  mother,  not 
only  while  he  was  a  child  at  home,  but  also  by  means  of  a 
ready  pen  during  the  whole  of  his  residence  at  West  Point.  It 
should  not  be  inferred  that  the  young  man  attained  perfection 
in  his  conduct.  "  When  a  child  he  is  said  to  have  been  quick- 
tempered, and  at  later  periods  of  his  life,  when  suddenly  pro- 
voked beyond  his  habitual  power  of  endurance,  he  sometimes 
gave  way  to  manifestations  of  temper  which  might  have  sur- 
prised those  who  only  knew  him  in  his  usual  state  of  calm 
deportment.  These  ebullitions  were,  however,  of  rare  occur- 
rence, and  always  of  short  duration." 

On  graduating,  Lieutenant  Bache  was  assigned  to  duty  at 
the  academy  as  assistant  professor.  A  year  later  he  was  trans- 
ferred at  his  own  request  to  engineering  service  on  the  forti- 
fications at  Newport,  R.  I.,  under  Major  (afterward  General) 
J.  G.  Totten.  Here  he  remained  two  years.  One  of  his  recre- 
ations during  this  period  was  making  a  collection  of  shells  of 
molluscs. 

In  1828,  being  then  twenty-two  years  of  age,  Lieutenant 
Bache  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army  to  accept  a  call  to 
the  chair  of  Natural  Philosophy  and  Chemistry  at  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  This  change  was  welcome  in  more  ways 
than  one.  He  was  engaged  to  Miss  Nancy  Clarke  Fowler,  the 
daughter  of  an  old  and  highly  respected  citizen  of  Newport, 
but  marriage  was  apparently  a  remote  prospect,  for  he  had 
only  the  stinted  pay  of  a  lieutenant  of  engineers,  out  of  which 
he  must  contribute  to  the  support  of  his  mother  and  her  younger 
children.  The  salary  of  his  new  position,  however,  justified 
him  in  hastening  the  happy  event. 

His  year's  experience  in  teaching  at  West  Point  assisted 
Mr.  Bache  in  taking  up  his  duties  at  the  university.  He  was  a 
very  successful  instructor,  and  popular  with  his  students.  But 
he  did  not  rest  content  with  imparting  knowledge  obtained  by 
the  labours  of  others.  He  joined  the  Franklin  Institute,  then 
newly  established,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  its  investiga- 
tions for  the  promotion  of  the  mechanical  arts.  For  a  full 
account  of  his  labours  in  connection  with  this  society  we  must 
here  be  content  with  referring  to  the  volumes  of  its  Journal 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE. 


439 


from  1828  to  1835  inclusive.  One  of  the  most  important  and 
fruitful  of  these  was  the  investigation  of  the  bursting  of  steam 
boilers,  of  which  he  was  the  principal  director.  From  inquiries 
and  experiments,  the  latter  not  unattended  with  danger,  "  the 
most  frequent  cause  of  explosion  was  found  to  be  the  gradual 
heating  of  the  boiler  beyond  its  power  of  resistance ;  and,  next 
to  this,  the  sudden  generation  of  steam  by  allowing  the  water 
to  become  too  low,  and  its  subsequent  contact  with  the  over- 
heated metal  of  the  sides  and  other  portions  of  the  boiler.  The 
generation  of  gas  from  the  decomposition  of  water  as  a  cause 
of  explosion  was  disproved,  as  was  also  the  dispersion  of  water 
in  the  form  of  spray  through  superheated  steam." 

Early  in  1829  Mr.  Bache  was  elected  to  membership  in  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  and  at  once  entered  upon  va- 
rious researches  in  pure  science  in  co-operation  with  his  fellow- 
members.  With  the  aid  of  his  wife  and  of  his  former  pupil, 
John  F.  Frazer,  he  determined  with  accuracy,,  for  the  first  time 
in  this  country,  the  periods  of  the  daily  variations  of  the  mag- 
netic needle,  and  by  another  series  of  observations  established 
the  connection  between  certain  perturbations  of  the  terrestrial 
magnetism  and  the  aurora  borealis.  With  Prof.  Courtenay  he 
investigated  the  magnetic  dip  at  various  places  in  the  United 
States,  and  with  Mr.  Espy  made  a  minute  survey  of  part  of  the 
track  of  a  tornado  which  visited  New  Jersey,  June  19,  1835. 

After  Stephen  Girard  died,  in  1832,  Prof.  Bache  was  elected 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  College  for  Orphans,  founded  by  the 
will  of  the  childless  merchant.  Three  years  later  the  trustees 
decided  to  select  a  president  for  the  institution,  in  order  that 
he  might  go  abroad  and  study  European  methods  of  education 
while  other  preparations  were  being  made.  Prof.  Bache,  then 
only  thirty  years  of  age,  was  selected  for  the  position.  Al- 
though regretting  the  consequent  interruption  of  his  scientific 
researches,  in  which  he  had  become  much  absorbed,  he  ac- 
cepted the  appointment,  and  departed  on  his  mission,  Sept.  30, 
1836.  His  own  previously  published  researches  combined  with 
the  memory  of  his  distinguished  ancestor  to  secure  him  a  cordial 
welcome  by  the  intellectual  class  in  each  country  that  he  visited. 
Two  years  were  spent  agreeably  and  profitably  in  Europe,  and 
on  his  return  Prof.  Bache  made  a  report  to  the  trustees  em- 
bodying his  observations  on  the  schools  of  England,  France, 
Prussia,  Austria,  Switzerland,  and  Italy,  with  the  many  helpful 


440 


PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE  IN  AMERICA. 


conclusions  and  suggestions  that  he  had  derived  from  these 
data.  The  document  was  printed,  making  a  large  octavo 
volume. 

As  the  preparations  for  opening  the  college  were  not  yet 
complete,  Prof.  Bache  offered  his  services  gratuitously  to  reor- 
ganize the  public  schools  of  Philadelphia,  and  his  offer  was 
gladly  accepted  by  the  municipal  authorities.  A  year  later, 
finding  that  the  trustees  of  the  college  were  still  unprepared  to 
open  the  institution,  he  relinquished  the  salary  of  his  office  and 
accepted  from  the  city  a  much  smaller  compensation  for  his 
time.  His  work  on  the  public  schools  was  completed  in  1842, 
and  resulted  in  a  system  that  has  been  taken  as  a  model  by 
other  cities  in  various  parts  of  the  United  States.  So  highly 
were  his  labours  appreciated  that  the  Central  High  School  was 
frequently  called  Bache  Institute. 

Girard  College  having  made  very  little  progress,  he  now 
resigned  all  connection  with  it,  and  accepted  his  former  chair 
at  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  with  its  welcome  opportuni- 
ties for  scientific  research.  The  preceding  six  years  had  by  no 
means  been  a  blank  with  respect  to  his  favourite  investigations. 
When  he  went  to  Europe  he  took  care  to  provide  himself  with 
a  set  of  portable  instruments,  with  which,  as  a  relief  from  the 
labours  imposed  by  the  special  object  of  his  mission,  he  made  a 
connected  series  of  observations  on  the  dip  and  intensity  of 
terrestrial  magnetism  at  important  places  on  the  Continent  and 
in  Great  Britain. 

After  his  return  to  Philadelphia  he  co-operated  in  the  under- 
taking of  the  British  Association  to  determine  by  contemporane- 
ous observations  at  widely  separated  points  the  fluctuations  of 
the  magnetic  and  meteorological  elements  of  the  globe.  He 
also  made  in  his  summer  vacations  a  magnetic  survey  of  Penn- 
sylvania. Mr.  Cramp,  afterward  the  famous  shipbuilder,  was 
then  a  boy 'in  the  high  school,  and  assisted  Prof.  Bache  in  his 
observations. 

Valuable  instruments  and  methods  for  performing  scientific 
observations  were  devised  by  Bache  during  this  period.  He 
invented  an  ingenious  instrument  for  determining  the  dew 
point,  which  is  especially  valuable  where  readings  must  be 
made  by  persons  without  special  scientific  training.  Only 
much  later  did  he  learn  that  the  principle  of  the  device  had 
already  been  used  by  Belli,  of  Milan.  He  also  introduced  a 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE. 


441 


modification  of  Osier's  anemometer  and  invented  a  thermo- 
scope  of  contact,  both  of  which  avoided  difficulties  involved  in 
the  use  of  previous  instruments. 

The  way  in  which  a  man  conducts  a  controversy  is  always 
a  severe  test  of  his  character.  Bache  had  one  with  Denison 
Olmsted  on  the  periodical  recurrence  of  meteors.  Prof.  Gould, 
in  his  American  Association  memoir,  thus  describes  the  occur- 
rence :  "^Mr.  Bache  maintained  that  there  was  no  recurrence  in 
1834;  Prof.  Olmsted,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  the  re- 
verse. Prof.  Bache  instituted  special  inquiries  at  the  military 
posts  (where,  of  course,  sentinels  were  on  duty)  along  all  the 
frontiers  of  the  United  States,  also  among  the  night  police  of 
various  cities,  and  at  the  universities,  and  he  found  but  one 
exception  to  the  statement  that  no  unusual  number  of  meteors 
was  seen.  Of  this  controversy  Bache  wrote,  in  1846  : 

" '  There  is  something  yet  to  be  found  out  on  this  subject 
which  may  reconcile  our  opinions.  Neither  I  nor  any  of  those 
watching  with  me,  or  for  me,  have  seen  an  unusual  number  of 
meteors  on  the  night  of  the  i2th  of  November  in  any  year 
since  the  great  night  at  Philadelphia,  and  we  have  taken  great 
pains  to  be  sure.  Yet  I  can  not  doubt  the  testimony  as  given 
for  some  other  places.  ...  I  had  a  complimentary  letter  from 
the  professor  in  regard  to  my  manner  of  conducting  the  con- 
troversy, which  I  valued  more  highly  than  if  I  had  gained  the 
victory.' " 

The  year  after  Prof.  Bache  resumed  his  old  position  at  the 
university  he  was  called  to  the  superintendency  of  the  United 
States  Coast  Survey,  left  vacant  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Hassler. 
His  appointment  to  this  position  was  first  suggested  by  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Philosophical  Society,  and  the  nomina- 
tion was  fully  concurred  in  by  the  other  principal  scientific  and 
literary  institutions  of  the  country.  For  the  successful  prose- 
cution of  the  work  of  the  survey  Dallas  Bache  was  abundantly 
well  qualified  by  his  training  at  West  Point  and  subsequent 
experience  as  an  army  engineer,  by  his  attainments  in  pure 
and  applied  science,  by  his  knowledge  of  the  world,  by  his 
skill  in  research,  his  rare  executive  ability  and  consummate 
tact. 

Although  the  Coast  Survey  had  been  founded  a  quarter  of 
a  century,  -the  policy  of  Congress  toward  it  had  been  change- 
able and  its  appropriations  limited.  It  had  been  suspended 
29 


442  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

fifteen  years  of  that  time,  so  that  its  work  was  but  just  begun. 
The  Atlantic  coast  line  had  been  surveyed  only  from  Point 
Judith,  on  the  coast  of  Rhode  Island,  to  Cape  Henlopen,  at  the 
entrance  of  Delaware  Bay.  "  The  new  superintendent,"  says 
Prof.  Henry  in  his  memoir,  "  saw  the  necessity  of  greatly  en- 
larging the  plan,  so  as  to  embrace  a  much  broader  field  of 
simultaneous  labour  than  it  had  previously  included.  He  di- 
vided the  whole  coast  line  into  sections,  and  organized,  under 
separate  parties,  the  essential  operations  of  the  survey  simul- 
taneously in  each.  He  commenced  the  exploration  of  the  Gulf 
Stream,  and  at  the  same  time  projected  a  series  of  observations 
on  the  tides,  on  the  magnetism  of  the  earth,  and  the  direction 
of  the  winds  at  different  seasons  of  the  year.  He  also  insti- 
tuted a  succession  of  researches  in  regard  to  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  within  soundings,  and  the  forms  of  animal  life  which  are 
found  there,  thus  offering  new  and  unexpected  indications  to 
the  navigator.  He  pressed  into  service,  for  the  determination 
of  longitude,  the  electric  telegraph ;  for  the  ready  reproduction 
of  charts,  photography;  and  for  multiplying  copperplate  en- 
gravings, the  new  art  of  electrotyping.  In  planning  and  direct- 
ing the  execution  of  these  varied  improvements,  which  exacted 
so  much  comprehensiveness  in  design  and  minuteness  in  detail, 
Prof.  Bache  was  entirely  successful.  He  was  equally  fortunate, 
principally  through  the  moral  influence  of  its  character,  in  im- 
pressing upon  the  Government,  and  especially  upon  Congress, 
a  more  just  estimate  of  what  such  a  survey  required  for  its 
maintenance  and  creditable  prosecution.  Not  only  was  a 
largely  increased  appropriation  needed  to  carry  out  this  more 
comprehensive  plan,  but  also  to  meet  the  expenses  consequent 
upon  the  extension  of  the  shore  line  itself.  Our  seacoast,  when 
the  survey  commenced,  already  exceeded  in  length  that  of  any 
other  civilized  nation,  but  in  1845  it  was  still  more  extended  by 
the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  again,  in  1848,  by  our  acquisi- 
tions on  the  Pacific.  Prof.  Bache  was  in  the  habit  of  answer- 
ing the  question  often  propounded  to  him  by  members  of  Con- 
gress, *  When  will  this  survey  be  completed  ? '  by  asking,  '  When 
will  you  cease  annexing  territory  ? ' ' 

Prof.  Bache's  policy  of  dividing  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf  coast 
(we  had  no  Pacific  coast  in  1843)  into  sections,  and  carrying  on 
work  in  all  the  sections  at  the  same  time  greatly  allayed  sec- 
tional jealousies  in  States  which  the  previous  operations  of  the 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE.  443 

survey  had  not  reached  and  had  great  influence  in  winning 
public  favour  for  the  survey.  He  had  a  wonderful  faculty  for 
enlisting  the  efforts  and  talents  of  others  in  carrying  out  his 
plans.  "  As  rapidly  as  means  allowed,  the  services  of  American 
scientists  throughout  the  land  were  enlisted  in  aid  of  the  survey, 
and  the  whole  intellectual  resources  of  the  country  thus  made 
tributary  to  its  usefulness  and  success.  Thus  Walker,  Peirce, 
Bailey,  Agassiz,  Barnard,  Kendall,  Mitchell,  Bond,  Alexander, 
and  many  others,  were  called  on  to  assist  in  the  advancement 
of  the  undertaking ;  and  this  large  and  wise  policy  prevailed 
during  the  whole  period  of  his  superintendence."  *  Many  of 
the  ablest  officers  of  the  navy  and  the  army  were  brought  into 
the  Coast  Survey  service,  and  gained  experience  of  great  value 
in  the  duties  many  of  them  were  afterward  called  upon  to  per- 
form in  the  civil  war. 

The  efficiency  of  the  survey  was  greatly  increased  by  im- 
proved instrumental  equipment.  Antiquated  instruments  were 
replaced  by  those  of  the  most  improved  type ;  an  apparatus  for 
the  measurement  of  base  lines,  invented  by  Prof.  Bache,  was 
introduced,  and  secured  a  degree  of  accuracy  before  unknown. 
The  method  of  determining  longitude  by  the  exchange  of  star 
signals  were  developed  through  the  agency  of  Sears  C.  Walker. 
Prof.  Gould  has  stated  that  he  had  received  accounts  of  this 
important  advance  in  geodetic  practice  from  the  lips  of  both 
Bache  and  Walker,  and  that  "  their  descriptions  varied  but  in 
one  salient  point,  namely,  that  each  ascribed  the  chief  merit  to 
the  other."  The  determination  of  latitudes  with  the  zenith 
telescope,  by  Talcott's  method,  first  tested  in  1845,  was  early 
adopted  by  the  survey.  "  Thus  by  the  use  of  the  zenith  tele- 
scope, combined  with  the  determination  of  longitudes  from  the 
adopted  meridian  by  the  exchange  of  star  signals,  the  geo- 
graphical position  of  the  primary  astronomical  stations  of  the 
survey  could  claim,  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  to  be  determined 
with  more  accuracy  than  that  of  any  European  observatory." 

Stations  for  tidal  observation  were  established  all  along  the 
Atlantic,  Gulf,  and  Pacific  coasts.  The  character  of  the  Gulf 
Stream  and  other  currents  along  our  coast  were  determined. 


*  Address  in  commemoration  of  Alexander  Dallas  Bache,  by  Benjamin 
Apthorp  Gould,  delivered  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  Aug.  6,  1868. 


444 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


Twice  was  Agassiz  sent  to  study  the  formation  of  the  coral 
reefs  of  Florida,  and  the  causes  that  promote  and  restrict 
their  growth.  The  magnetic  constants  were  determined  for 
every  important  point  possible  within  reach  of  the  survey. 
The  scientific  progress  of  the  nation  was  promoted  by  Bache 
through  the  agency  of  the  Coast  Survey  more  than  by  any 
other  man.  His  work  for  commerce,  for  the  safety  of  passen- 
gers and  seamen,  and  for  national  defence  was  thorough  and 
important — all  the  more  so  because  he  called  to  his  aid  the  re- 
sources of  the  highest  science. 

Other  duties  were  assigned  to  Prof.  Bache  by  the  Govern- 
ment from  time  to  time.  He  was  made  Superintendent  of 
Weights  and  Measures,  and  in  the  exercise  of  this  function 
directed  a  series  of  investigations  relative  to  the  collection  of 
excise  duties  on  distilled  spirits,  and  superintended  the  con- 
struction of  a  large  number  of  sets  of  standard  weights  and 
measures  for  distribution  to  the  several  States  of  the  Union. 
He  was  appointed  on  a  commission  created  to  examine  the 
lighthouse  system  of  the  United  States,  and  was  a  member  of 
the  Lighthouse  Board,  into  which  this  commission  was  merged, 
from  its  organization  till  his  death.  In  this  work  he  took  a 
lively  interest  and  rendered  important  service. 

As  to  the  connection  of  Prof.  Bache  with  the  Smithsonian 
Institution  we  can  not  have  better  testimony  than  that  of  him 
who  was  identified  with  the  institution  for  more  than  thirty 
years,  its  first  secretary.  Prof.  Henry  says:  "In  1846  he  had 
been  named  in  the  act  of  incorporation  as  one  of  the  regents 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  by  successive  re-election 
was  continued  by  Congress  in  this  office  until  his  death,  a 
period  of  nearly  twenty  years.  To  say  that  he  assisted  in 
shaping  the  policy  of  the  establishment  would  not  be  enough. 
It  was  almost  exclusively  through  his  predominating  influence 
that  the  policy  which  has  given  the  institution  its  present 
celebrity  was,  after  much  opposition,  finally  adopted."  *  Not 
the  least  of  Bache's  services  to  the  institution  was  securing  Henry 
for  its  secretary.  The  latter  states,  in  the  place  just  quoted, 
that  "  it  was  entirely  due  to  the  persuasive  influence  of  the 
professor  "  that  he  was  induced  to  take  the  position. 

Although  not  fond  of  physical  exertion,  Prof.  Bache  had 

*  Biographical  Memoirs  of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  i,  197,  198. 


ALEXANDER  DALLAS  BACHE.  445 

been  accustomed  to  spend  part  of  each  summer  in  a  tent  at 
some  station  of  the  survey  on  the  top  of  a  mountain,  where  he 
took  part  in  the  measurement  of  angles  and  directed  the  move- 
ments of  field  parties  at  other  stations.  The  civil  war  brought 
added  labours  upon  him  so  that  his  constant  presence  in  Wash- 
ington was  required,  and  his  health  no  longer  obtained  the 
yearly  recuperation  of  this  season  of  outdoor  life.  During  the 
alarm  in  Philadelphia  which  immediately  preceded  and  followed 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  the  services  of  Mr.  Bache,  with  a 
corps  of  his  assistants  on  the  Coast  Survey,  were  accepted  by 
the  city  and  utilized  under  the  direction  of  General  N.  J.  T. 
Dana,  in  reconnaissances  and  the  throwing  up  of  such  earth- 
works near  the  city  as  might  frustrate  a  raid  of  cavalry.  Suc- 
cessful defence  against  a  victorious  army  of  the  enemy  would 
have  been  impossible,  both  from  the  nature  of  the  ground 
about  the  city  and  the  lack  of  troops  to  make  a  stand  against 
such  a  force.  Although  overburdened  with  other  public  duties, 
Prof.  Bache  personally  superintended  the  construction  of  some 
of  the  works.  Unaccustomed  for  many  years  to  direct  expo- 
sure to  the  sun,  this  undertaking  brought  on  the  first  indica- 
tions of  the  malady  that  ended  his  life.  He  had  been  subject 
to  attacks  of  "  sick  headache  " — a  tendency  which  he  seems  to 
have  inherited — and  now  various  symptoms  of  softening  of  the 
brain  came  upon  him  in  succession.  For  several  months  he 
was  very  anxious  about  the  business  of  the  Coast  Survey,  and 
with  difficulty  could  be  restrained  from  attempting  to  perform 
the  duties  of  his  office.  As  the  malady  increased,  however,  his 
attention  was  gradually  withdrawn  from  the  exterior  world, 
with  which  he  almost  ceased  to  hold  active  communication.  A 
trip  to  Europe,  covering  a  period  of  eighteen  months,  produced 
no  permanent  benefit.  He  died  a  short  time  after  his  return, 
at  Newport,  R.  I.,  February  17,  1867. 

The  ability  and  worth  of  Dallas  Bache  brought  him  many 
and  high  honours.  There  were  few  of  our  leading  learned  so- 
cieties that  did  not  number  him  among  their  associates.  He 
was  President  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  in  1850  and  1851,  of  the  American  Philosoph- 
ical Society  in  1855  and  1856,  and  of  the  National  Academy  of 
Sciences  from  its  establishment  in  1863  until  his  death.  He 
was  a  member  also  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  the  Im- 
perial Academy  of  Sciences  at  St.  Petersburg,  the  Institute  of 


446  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

France,  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  the  Royal  and  Im- 
perial Geographical  Society  of  Vienna,  the  Royal  Academy  of 
Turin,  the  Mathematical  Society  of  Hamburg,  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  in  the  Institute  of  Bologna,  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society  of  London,  and  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  of  Dublin. 

The  degree  of  LL.  D.  was  conferred  upon  him  by  the  prin- 
cipal American  universities,  and  he  received  several  medals  from 
foreign  governments  for  his  distinguished  services  to  science  in 
the  course  of  his  labours  on  the  Coast  Survey  and  in  other 
researches. 

Mr.  Bache  was  gifted  with  quick  apprehension,  and  at  the 
same  time  with  deep  intelligence,  which  is  not  always  allied  to 
the  former  quality.  He  had  also  great  power  of  application. 
When  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  workers  those  under  him  were 
always  nerved  to  do  their  best,  because  they  saw  that  the 
master  did  not  spare  himself.  He  was  always  ready  to  learn 
from  others.  He  would  listen  carefully  to  younger  men  if  he 
saw  that  they  had  ideas  which  might  be  developed  to  good  pur- 
pose. After  arguing  vehemently  in  opposition  to  the  views  of 
his  brother  on  a  matter  under  consideration,  he  would  often 
come  out  on  the  same  side  of  the  question,  and  explain  that 
his  contention  was  designed  to  draw  out  arguments. 

In  his  home  he  dropped  science,  and  was  a  genial  compan- 
ion of  old  and  young.  Although  not  prepossessing  in  face,  he 
was  charming  in  manner  and  disposition.  He  was  a  very  lov- 
able man,  and  there  was  always  plenty  of  company  at  his 
house  in  Washington.  His  favourite  relaxation  was  reading 
light  novels.  He  had  a  great  appreciation  of  humour,  but 
failed  in  trying  to  contribute  humorously  to  the  entertainment 
of  others. 

As  an  evidence  of  his  high  appreciation  of  abstract  science 
derived  from  original  investigation,  he  left  his  property  4n  trust 
to  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences,  the  income  to  be  devoted 
to  the  prosecution  of  researches  in  physical  and  natural  sci- 
ence, by  assisting  experimenters  and  observers,  and  the  publi- 
cation of  the  results  of  their  investigations. 

Appended  to  the  memorial  address  by  Dr.  Benjamin  A. 
Gould  already  cited  is  a  list  of  the  published  scientific  papers  of 
Prof.  Bache,  embracing  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  titles, 
besides  thirty-five  annual  reports,  and  twenty-one  reports  on 
harbours  made  jointly  with  Messrs.  Totten  and  Davis. 


.-JAMES    HENRY    COFFIN. 


JAMES   HENRY   COFFIN. 

1806-1873. 

FROM  Sir  Richard  Coffin,  Knight,  who  accompanied  Wil- 
liam the  Conqueror  to  England  in  1066,  springs  the  genealog- 
ical tree  that  bears  the  name  of  Tristram  Coffin,  who  came  to 
America  from  Devonshire  in  1642.  Six  years  later  he  erected 
"  the  Coffin  house,"  still  standing,  at  Newbury,  Mass.,  and  in 
1660  he,  with  nine  others,  bought  the  island  of  Nantucket  from 
the  Indians.  His  American  descendants  have  been  engaged, 
to  a  large  extent,  in  navigation.  Of  these,  and  fifth  in  the  line 
of  descent  from  Tristram,  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

James  Henry  Coffin  was  born  in  Williamsburg,  Mass.,  on 
the  6th  day  of  September,  1806.  He  was  therefore  sixty-six 
years  old  at  the  time  of  his  decease,  which  occurred  February  6, 
1873,  at  Lafayette  College,  Easton,  Pa.,  where  he  had  for  over 
twenty-six  years -filled  the  professorship  of  Mathematics  and 
Astronomy.  From  the  full  and  faithful  Life  of  Prof.  Coffin, 
by  his  son-in-law,  Rev.  John  C.  Clyde,  D.  D.,  we  learn  that  he 
was  the  third  among  the  six  children  of  Matthew  Coffin  and 
Betsey  Allen,  both  natives  of  Martha's  Vineyard.  His  father's 
occupation  being  that  of  a  country  broker,  led  him  to  travel 
in  New  England,  buying  the  bills  of  banks  and  presenting  them 
for  redemption  in  coin  at  the  place  of  issue.  He  frequently 
had  occasion  to  handle  large  sums  of  money,  but  being  reputed 
a  superior  marksman  and  well  armed,  was  never  molested  on 
his  long  journeys.  He  carried  his  specie  in  nail  kegs.  Among 
the  many  commercial  reverses  that  marked  the  close  of  the 
second  war  with  England  were  numerous  bank  failures.  Four 
banks  in  western  Massachusetts  closed  in  one  week,  and  Mr. 
Coffin  was  left  with  fourteen  thousand  dollars  in  the  bills  of 
these  institutions  on  his  hands,  which  proved  a  total  loss.  He 
died  in  1820  without  having  repaired  his  lost  fortunes. 

At  the  death  of  their  father  the  older  children  were  scat- 

447 


448 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


tered  among  kind  relatives.  Henry  (he  was  always  called  by 
his  middle  name)  was  then  fourteen  years  old.  He  had  been 
a  feeble  child  and  his  schooling — at  various  public  and  private 
schools — had  consequently  been  much  interrupted.  It  was 
only  in  the  preceding  spring  that  he  had  become  strong  enough 
to  work  on  his  father's  farm.  The  next  winter  and  summer  he 
worked  for  an  uncle.  From  the  age  of  ten  years,  he  notes  in 
his  journal,  he  had  spent  most  of  his  leisure  "  in  exercises  of 
mechanical  ingenuity,  for  which  I  was  then  more  noted  than 
for  anything  useful."  .  It  was  this  bent  which  determined  his 
intention,  after  his  father  died,  to  go  to  the  trade  of  musical  in- 
strument and  cabinet  maker.  This  plan  was  not  carried  out, 
for  in  September,  1821,  he  went  to  live  with  another  uncle,  the 
Rev.  Moses  Hallock,  of  Plainfield,  who  added  to  his  pastoral 
duties  the  preparation  of  boys  for  college  and  the  tilling  of  a 
farm.  The  poet  William  Cullen  Bryant  was  one  of  his  many 
pupils.  For  two  years  Henry  worked  on  the  farm  in  sum- 
mer and  studied  at  odd  times  and  in  winter,  going  through  in 
this  period  all  the  studies  required  for  admission  to  college. 
He  had  no  thought  of  entering  for  several  years  at  least,  hav- 
ing no  means  of  meeting  the  necessary  expenses.  But  Amherst 
College  was  then  new  and  was  bidding  eagerly  for  students. 
His  case  was  made  known  to  its  authorities  without  his  knowl- 
edge, and  such  promises  of  aid  were  extended  to  him  that  he 
entered  in  the  fall  of  1823. 

He  took  with  him  to  Amherst  seventy-five  cents  in  money 
and  a  small  chest  containing  his  few  belongings.  The  chest 
was  made  by  his  own  hands  and  was  a  good  specimen  of  his 
expertness  in  the  use  of  tools.  It  is  still  in  the  possession  of 
his  family,  and  as  substantial  as  when  it  was  new.  Only  part 
of  the  promised  aid  was  ever  realized,  but,  mainly  with  the 
money  earned  in  teaching  during  vacations  and  part  of  term- 
time,  he  was  enabled  to  meet  the  expenses  of  his  course,  ex- 
cept about  two  hundred  dollars  that  he  owed  when  he  gradu- 
ated. In  the  first  term  he  had  the  measles,  which  affected  his 
eyes  so  as  to  cause  several  interruptions  of  his  studies  and 
teaching  in  the  course  of  the  next  six  years.  Having  lost  con- 
siderable time  from  his  first  three  years  in  college  he  decided 
to  go  back  a  year,  and  graduated  in  the  class  of  1828. 

During  part  of  the  year  after  graduating  he  was  engaged 
in  teaching  and  a  part  in  an  agency  in  eastern  Massachusetts. 


JAMES   HENRY   COFFIN.  449 

In  August,  1829,  he  opened  a  private  school  for  boys  at  Green- 
field. Three  months  later  he  added  a  boarding  house  to  the 
school,  and  the  next  spring  he  annexed  a  manual  labour  depart- 
ment. For  the  latter  purpose  he  hired  about  two  hundred 
acres  of  land  and  a  farmer  to  superintend  its  cultivation.  The 
students  had  each  a  share  in  whatever  profits  the  business  of 
the  year  might  afford,  and  in  this  way  were  able  to  pay  half 
their  expenses.  The  enterprise  had  a  rapid  growth,  and  in  its 
third  year  Mr.  Coffin  converted  it  into  a  joint-stock  company, 
having  obtained  for  it  by  subscription  a  capital  of  eight  thou- 
sand dollars.  It  was  chartered  under  the  name  of  the  Fellen- 
berg  Manual  Labour  Institution,  and  the  spring  term  of  1832 
began  under  the  charter.  The  number  of  pupils  reached  one 
hundred  and  nine,  and  frequently  applicants  for  admission  had 
to  wait  their  turn  for  a  vacancy.  An  ample  corps  of  assistants 
was  provided,  and  at  the  close  of  1833  the  trustees  lightened 
the  labours  of  the  principal  by  appointing  a  superintendent  of 
the  farm  and  boarding  house.  An  unwise  choice  of  superin- 
tendent proved  the  ruin  of  the  enterprise.  The  man  selected 
kept  no  proper  accounts,  and  two  years  later  it  was  discovered 
that  two  or  three  thousand  dollars  had  been  sunk  in  his  depart- 
ment. The  institution  was  reduced  to  the  scope  of  an  ordinary 
school,  and  Mr.  Coffin  left  it,  carrying  away  with  him  perhaps 
two  hundred  dollars'  worth  of  household  effects  as  the  out- 
come of  eight  years  of  unceasing  labour. 

While  at  Greenfield  he  had  taken  up  the  practice  of  survey- 
ing, and  part  of  his  time  in  1836  was  devoted  to  this  employ- 
ment. The  ownership  of  a  plot  of  land  in  Deerfield,  formed 
by  a  river  having  changed  its  course,  was  in  litigation,  and  Mr. 
Coffin  was  occupied  for  about  a  month,  on  an  order  of  the  Su- 
preme Judicial  Court,  in  surveying,  dividing,  and  computing 
this  formation.  He  presented  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  re- 
port on  riparian  ownership  that  has  been  frequently  referred 
to  in  Massachusetts  legal  practice.  The  following  winter  he 
was  induced  by  certain  townspeople  of  Greenfield  to  reopen 
the  school  there.  He  soon  received  a  call  to  take  charge  of 
an  academy  at  Ogdensburg,  N.  Y.,  on  a  salary  of  eight  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year,  whither  he  removed  in  the  following  spring. 
He  remained  at  Ogdensburg  about  two  years  and  a  half.  The 
next  winter  was  spent  in  astronomical  and  meteorological  in- 
vestigations at  Williamstown,  Mass.,  and  in  the  fall  of  1840  he 


450 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


entered  upon  an  appointment  as  tutor  in  Williams  College. 
During  his  stay  at  Williamstown  he  became  interested  in  trac- 
ing the  early  land  allotments  of  the  settlement,  which  were 
somewhat  complicated.  He  prepared  a  wall  map  of  the  town, 
which  was  engraved  and  published  in  Boston.  It  became  a 
saying  among  the  farmers  of  the  vicinity  that  there  was  a 
young  man  at  the  college  who  could  tell  them  more  about  the 
boundaries  of  their  lands  than  their  fathers  had  ever  made 
known  to  them.  He  retained  his  tutorship  for  three  years,  but 
the  salary  of  four  hundred  dollars,  which  was  all  that  the  col- 
lege could  afford  to  pay,  was  too  small  for  the  needs  of  a 
growing  family.  Consequently,  in  October,  1843,  Mr.  Coffin 
removed  to  South  Norwalk,  Conn.,  to  become  the  principal  of 
the  academy  in  that  flourishing  village.  Here  he  prospered ; 
his  circle  of  meteorological  correspondence  widened,  and  abun- 
dant facts  for  his  researches  were  gathered  from  the  logbooks 
of  New  York  sea  captains  and  the  library  of  Yale  College.  In 
1846  he  was  called  to  the  chair  of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy 
in  Lafayette  College,  which  he  rilled  to  the  time  of  his  death. 

Twenty-seven  years  of  untiring  labour,  carried  on  in  a  truly 
self-sacrificing  spirit,  amidst  circumstances  which  might  have 
discouraged  a  less  noble  nature,  his  great  success  as  a  teacher, 
his  quiet  but  never-flagging  enthusiasm,  and  the  beneficent  in- 
fluence he  exerted  on  his  pupils,  made  him  one  of  the  main 
pillars  of  that  institution  during  a  long  period  of  great  depres- 
sion. He  lived,  however,  to  see  Lafayette  College  rise  to  the 
honourable  position  she  now  occupies  among  the  American 
seminaries  of  learning. 

Mr.  Coffin  married,  December  5,  1833,  Aurelia  Medici,  eldest 
daughter  of  the  «Rev.  Ebenezer  Jennings,  of  Dalton,  Mass. 
She  had  been  one  of  his  pupils,  when,  as  a  college  student, 
young  Coffin  taught  the  winter  school  in  her  native  town. 
She  proved  to  him  a  most  devoted  helpmate,  and  years  after 
her  death  Prof.  Coffin  said,  "  If  I  have  accomplished  anything 
worth  speaking  of,  I  owe  it  all  to  her  aid,  consideration,  and 
thoughtful  carefulness."  Three  children  were  the  fruit  of  this 
happy  union.  The  first,  a  daughter,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty 
years.  The  second  is  his  son,  Selden  Jennings,  who  succeeded 
to  his  father's  professorship  at  Lafayette.  The  youngest,  an- 
other daughter,  became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John  C.  Clyde, 
D.  D.  Prof.  Coffin  was  a  second  time  married,  March  12,  1851, 


JAMES   HENRY   COFFIN.  451 

to  Mrs.  Abby  Elizabeth  Young,  who  survived  him  seven  years. 
The  only  child  of  this  marriage  was  a  son  who  died  in  infancy. 

In  national  affairs  Prof.  Coffin  ever  took  a  deep  interest, 
and  his  political  duties  were  always  performed  as  matters  of 
conscience.  His  course  was  strictly  independent,  hence  he 
could  not  become  a  "  party  man." 

He  was  quick  to  seize  an  opportunity  to  do  a  kindness; 
was  fond  of  little  children,  and  would  take  much  pains  to 
amuse  them.  He  enjoyed  music,  and  having  learned  to  play 
the  flute  in  his  early  years,  continued  the  practice  into  middle 
life. 

In  the  eulogy  pronounced  upon  him  before  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  by  his  intimate  friend,  Prof.  Arnold 
Guyot,  of  Princeton,  Prof.  Coffin  was  described  as  "  naturally 
modest,  unobtrusive,  and  absolutely  unselfish  ;  he  never  sought 
to  impose  himself  or  his  opinions  on  others.  His  kindness  of 
heart,  his  gentleness,  coupled  with  great  firmness,  energy,  and 
perseverance,  exerted  a  strong  and  beneficent  influence  on  his 
surroundings.  His  profound  love  of  truth  made  him  the  cau- 
tious, candid,  and  persevering  observer  whom  we  know,  while 
his  inquiring  mind  kept  his  eye  open  to  every  ray  of  light,  from 
whatever  quarter  it  might  come.  He  joined  the  Church  while 
at  Amherst,  and  to  the  end  of  his  life  was  a  devoted  Christian. 

His  health  suffered  several  severe  strains  in  1872,  so  that 
when  in  the  following  winter  he  was  attacked  by  erysipelas, 
from  which  his  wife  was  suffering  at  the  time,  he  was  unable 
to  withstand  the  onslaught  of  the  disease. 

As  a  teacher,  Prof.  Coffin  was  laborious  and  enthusiastic, 
and  his  success  was  remarkable.  He  secured  the  respect  and 
love  of  his  pupils  to  a  degree  seldom  equalled ;  but  he  was  also 
a  zealous  student  in  science,  and  published  several  valuable 
works  as  the  results  of  his  researches.  Among  these  are  his 
Analytical  Geometry,  and  his  Conic  Sections,  which,  at  one 
time,  were  extensively  used  as  text-books  in  our  colleges. 
While  connected  with  the  Fellenberg  Institution  he  published 
two  works  on  book-keeping,  that  were  adopted  by  the  State 
schools  of  Massachusetts.  He  read  many  valuable  papers  be- 
fore the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
of  which  he  was,  from  its  organization,  a  member;  and  also  be- 
fore the  National  Academy  of  Science,  for  the  meeting  of 
which  in  1873  he  had  in  preparation  an  article  on  the  Storm- 


452 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


curve,  the  object  being  to  show  that  it  was  an  hyperboloid,  the 
equation  of  which  he  had  computed.  In  1859  he  received  the 
degree  of  LL.  D.  from  Rutgers  College. 

His  chief  reputation,  in  science,  was  achieved  by  his  re- 
searches in  the  department  of  meteorology.  These  were  com- 
menced in  1839,  while  principal  of  the  Ogdensburg  (N.  Y.) 
Academy.  He  took  simultaneous  and  constant  observations 
of  the  barometric  changes  connected  with  the  variations  of  the 
wind-vane  and  with  the  fall  of  rain.  His  instruments  were 
self-registering.  Each  motion  of  the  vane  directed  a  minute 
but  constant  stream  of  dry  sand  into  some  one  of  thirty-two 
stationary  hoppers,  corresponding  in  position  to  as  many  points 
of  compass.  The  weight  of  sand  found  in  the  several  re- 
ceptacles below  each  hopper  showed  the  length  of  time  that 
the  vane  had  pointed  in  that  direction.  The  rain-gauge  was  an 
inverted  cone,  having  an  horizontal  surface  of  172.8  square 
inches :  the  rain  falling  into  it  passed  down,  through  an  orifice 
so  small  that  no  appreciable  evaporation  could  occur,  into  a 
close-fitting  can.  One  inch  of  rain  in  depth  would,  therefore, 
make  *fm  of  a  cubic  foot  when  collected,  the  weight  of  which 
is  one  hundred  ounces.  Each  ounce  that  the  can  contained 
after  a  storm,  consequently,  represented  '/I00  of  an  inch  in  per- 
pendicular fall.  The  amount  necessary  to  merely  moisten  the 
funnel  without  precipitation  into  the  can  is  easily  determined 
as  a  constant.  The  results  of  these  observations  for  the  year 

1838  were   published  by  Prof.   Coffin   in   the    Meteorological 
Register,  a  monthly  journal,  of  which  he  issued  the  first  num- 
ber in  January,  1839.     It  was  devoted  to  the  discussion  of  va- 
rious phenomena  connected  with  physical  science.    Though  the 
demand  for  a  periodical  of  this  nature  was  insufficient  to  sus- 
tain it,  it  brought    into    correspondence  many  who  were  in- 
terested in  such  subjects.     The  investigation  of  rainfall  and 
evaporation  had  present  practical  value  in  being  made  the  basis 
of  the  report  of  the  committee  of  the   New  York  Senate,  in 

1839  to  1840,  appointed  to  consider  the  enlargement  of  the  canal 
system  of  the  State  by  the  construction  of  the  Genesee  Valley 
Canal.     These  studies  were  afterward  extended   to  form  the 
chapter  on  the  climate  of  the  State,  published  in  the  Natural 
History  of  New  York,  in  1845,  in  which  the  inquiries  took  a 
wider  range ;  and  questions  of  vegetation,  agricultural  epochs, 
the  migration  of  birds,  etc.,  were  introduced.     A  determination 


JAMES   HENRY  COFFIN.  453 

was  also  made  of  the  amount  of  rise  in  the  thermometer  per 
hour,  during  the  prevalence  of  winds  from  the  northeast  by 
east  to  south-southwest,  and  the  unequal  corresponding  de- 
crease of  temperature  when  the  winds  were  from  the  north- 
westerly points  of  compass. 

While  at  Williams  College,  Prof.  Coffin  erected,  upon  the 
Greylock  peak  of  Saddle  Mountain,  at  a  height  of  nearly  four 
thousand  feet  above  the  ocean,  an  observatory,  where  continu- 
ous observations  were  taken,  even  through  the  winter  season, 
when  for  three  months  it  was  impracticable  to  ascend  the  peak. 
In  this  interval  the  clockwork  faithfully  did  its  entire  duty.  The 
anemometer  had  been  changed  by  substituting  for  the  stream 
of  sand  a  series  of  cards  half  an  inch  square,  laid  consecutively 
on  a  moving  band  that  deposited  one  of  them  every  fifteen 
minutes.  Each  card  being  inscribed  with  the  day  and  hour  it 
represented,  when  the  receptacle  marked  "  North,"  for  exam- 
ple, was  examined,  all  the  cards  found  in  it  indicated  the  exact 
quarter-hour  in  the  past  three  months  when  the  wind  was  from 
that  direction.  In  1872  he  constructed,  for  the  observatory  of 
the  Argentine  Confederation,  at  Cordova,  a  duplicate  of  this 
instrument  with  improvements  similar  to  the  one  in  use  at  La- 
fayette College. 

The  Results  of  Meteorological  Observations  for  1854  to  1859, 
in  two  volumes,  quarto,  1,757  pages,  prepared  under  his  super- 
vision, under  the  auspices  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  con- 
stitute a  vast  fund  of  condensed  material  from  which  to  study 
the  climate  of  North  America. 

But  the  great  work  of  Prof.  Coffin's  life  was  the  development 
of  his  theory  of  the  winds,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Smithso- 
nian Institution,  the  following  account  of  which  has  been  given 
by  Prof.  Henry,  secretary  of  the  institution  : 

"  The  results  of  the  scientific  labours  of  Prof.  Coffin  include 
contributions  to  astronomy,  mathematics,  and  especially  to 
meteorology.  His  labours  in  regard  to  the  latter  branch  of 
science  commenced  immediately  after  his  graduation,  and  were 
continued,  almost  uninterruptedly,  until  the  time  of  his  death. 
He  was  early  recognised  as  one  of  the  meteorologists  of  the 
country,  and,  on  the  establishment  of  the  Smithsonian  Institu- 
tion, he  was  invited  to  become  one  of  its  collaborators  in  that 
line.  All  the  materials  which  were  collected  from  the  observ- 
ers of  the  institution,  and  from  those  of  the  army  from  1854  to 


454  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

1859  inclusive,  were  placed  in  his  hands  for  reduction  and  dis- 
cussion. This  work  was  conscientiously  and  thoroughly  per- 
formed, and  the  results  published  in  a  quarto  volume  of  up- 
ward of  twelve  hundred  pages.  In  conducting  this  work,  Prof. 
Coffin  engaged  the  services  of  some  of  the  students  of  Lafay- 
ette College,  and  a  large  number  of  women.  The  wages  of 
these  computers  were  paid  by  an  appropriation  from  Congress, 
while  the  services  of  Prof.  Coffin  himself,  in  directing  and  su- 
perintending the  whole,  were  entirely  gratuitous." 

His  treatise  on  The  Winds  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere, 
issued  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  vol. 
vi,  in  1853,  was  his  most  important  publication,  and  the  one 
which  made  him  known  wherever  science  is  cultivated.  This 
work  had  been  commenced  at  least  ten  years  before  the  date 
of  its  publication,  a  communication  having  been  made  in  rela- 
tion to  it  to  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  in  1848. 

The  materials  on  which  it  was  based  were  derived  from  all 
accessible  sources,  including  six  hundred  different  stations  on 
land,  and  numerous  positions  at  sea,  extending  from  the  equa- 
tor to  the  83d  degree  of  north  latitude,  the  most  northerly 
point  then  reached  by  man,  and  embracing  an  aggregate  period 
of  over  twenty-eigh't  hundred  years. 

The  design  of  the  work  was  to  ascertain,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  mean  direction  in  which  the  lower  stratum  of  the  air  moves 
in  different  portions  of  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  its  rate  of 
progress,  the  modification  it  undergoes  in  different  months  of 
the  year,  the  amount  of  deflecting  forces,  and  its  relative  ve- 
locity from  different  points  of  the  compass.  The  collection  of 
this  material  involved  an  amount  of  correspondence  and  biblio- 
graphical research  which  but  few  would  undertake,  even  with 
the  hope  of  pecuniary  reward,  and  still  fewer  for  the  love  of 
truth,  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake.  But 
the  labour  of  computation,  and  discussion  of  the  materials,  was 
an  almost  Herculean  task,  to  which  years  of  silent  and  unob- 
trusive labour  were  devoted.  The  work  consisted  mainly  of 
about  one  hundred  and  forty  quarto  page  tables  of  figures,  with 
descriptive  deductions,  and  illustrated  by  maps.  Each  of  these 
figures  is  the  result  of  laborious  calculations,  since  the  method 
of  determining  the  velocity  and  direction  of  the  wind  is  the 
same  as  that  employed  by  the  mariner  in  determining  the  dis- 


JAMES    HENRY   COFFIN.  455 

tance  in  a  straight  line,  and  direction  at  the  end  of  a  given 
time,  from  the  place  of  his  departure.  In  this  work  Prof. 
Coffin  was  the  first  clearly  to  establish  the  fact,  by  accurate 
comparison  of  observations,  that  there  are  three  great  zones  of 
winds  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere.  At  a  later  date  he  demon- 
strated the  same  truth  in  the  case  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere. 
The  first  belt  is  that  of  the  region  of  the  easterly  trade  winds, 
extending  northward  in  the  Western  Hemisphere  to  about  the 
32d  degree  north  latitude,  and  in  Europe  to  the  426.  degree. 
The  second  is  the  great  belt  around  the  world  of  the  return 
trades,  in  which  the  predominant  direction  is  from  the  west. 
This  extends  northward  in  America  to  56°,  and  in  Europe  and 
Asia  to  about  66°  north  latitude.  Beyond  this,  principally 
within  the  Arctic  Circle,  is  a  belt  of  easterly  or  northeasterly 
winds.  The  common  pole  of  these  belts  or  zones  has  not  the 
same  position  as  that  of  the  geometrical  pole  of  the  earth.  It 
appears  to  be  in  latitude  84°  and  longitude  105°  west  of  Green- 
wich, and  has  been  denominated  by  Prof.  Coffin  the  meteoro- 
logical pole. 

These  results  are  in  general  accordance  with  the  mathemat- 
ical deductions  from  the  theory  of  the  winds  of  the  globe,  which 
considers  them  as  due  to  the  combined  action  of  the  movement 
produced  in  the  air  by  the  greater  heat  of  the  equator,  and  the 
rotation  of  the  earth  on  its  axis. 

The  researches  of  Prof.  Coffin  also  strikingly  exhibit  the 
fact  of  the  influence  of  the  seasons  in  modifying  the  direction 
of  the  wind,  or  in  producing  the  results  denominated  monsoons. 
Thus,  along  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America,  as  is  shown 
on  the  maps,  the  tendency  during  the  summer  months  of  the 
opposing  forces  is  to  lessen  the  dominant  westerly  wind,  and 
this  effect  is  noticed  even  beyond  the  Mississippi,  as  well  as  in 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  along  our  coast.  The  effect  is,  undoubtedly, 
due  to  the  change  of  temperature  in  the  land — the  temperature 
of  the  ocean  remaining  nearly  the  same  during  the  year,  while 
that  of  the  land  is  greatly  increased  in  summer  above  the 
mean,  and  depressed  in  winter.  From  this  cause  the  air  will 
tend  to  flow  toward  the  centre  of  the  continent  from  the 
ocean  in  summer,  and  from  the  same  centre  toward  the  ocean 
in  winter. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Science,  held  in  Cleveland  in  1853,  he  discussed 


456 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 


the  relation  of  the  prevalent  winds  to  the  rise  and  fall  of  the 
barometer,  particularly  showing  that  "  the  line  of  the  wind's 
approach  makes  an  angle  of  about  sixty-five  degrees  with  the 
line  drawn  to  the  point  of  maximum  pressure."  It  is  this  prin- 
ciple that  was  afterward  so  emphasized  by  the  director  of  the 
Royal  Observatory  of  Holland,  that  it  has  since  been  desig- 
nated by  his  name — rather  than  that  of  Prof.  Coffin — and 
is  referred  to  in  Europe  as  "Buys-Ballot's  law  of  the  winds." 
The  results  of  the  investigations  of  Prof.  Coffin  have  been 
referred  to  in  all  the  treatises  on  meteorology  which  have  ap- 
peared since  their  publication,  and  they  have  been  employed 
with  other  materials  as  the  basis  of  the  wind-charts  of  the  At- 
lantic and  Pacific  Oceans,  prepared  and  published  by  the  Eng- 
lish Board  of  Trade. 

In  attentively  studying  the  result  of  Prof.  Coffin's  labours, 
we  can  not  but  be  struck  with  his  conscientious  regard  for  ac- 
curacy, and  his  devotion  to  truth.  In  all  cases  in  which  the 
results  do  not  conform  to  the  theory  which  explains  the  general 
phenomena,  the  discrepancies  are  fully  pointed  out;  and,  where 
he  is  unable  to  suggest  an  hypothetical  cause  of  the  anomaly, 
he  candidly  acknowledges  his  ignorance.  In  this  respect  he  is 
an  admirable  model  for  an  investigator,  since  errors  in  science 
as  frequently  occur  from  defects  of  the  heart  as  from  those  of 
the  head. 

After  the  publication  of  the  work  on  the  winds,  he  continued 
to  collect  materials,  at  first  with  a  view  to  an  appendix,  and 
finally  extended  his  investigations  to  the  winds  of  the  entire 
globe.  To  aid  in  this  enterprise,  the  Smithsonian  Institution 
placed  in  his  hands  all  the  observations  on  the  winds,  which  it 
had  obtained  from  its  numerous  observers  during  the  twenty 
years  since  the  system  was  commenced,  together  with  the  ob- 
servations made  by  the  officers  of  the  army,  as  well  as  the  ex- 
tensive series  of  materials  in  the  various  series  of  transactions 
of  scientific  societies  of  the  Old  World,  obtained  through  the 
exchanges  of  the  institution.  Unfortunately,  however,  he  was 
not  spared  to  complete  this  work,  although  he  left  it  in  such  a 
condition  that  it  was  readily  pushed  to  completion  within  three 
years  after  his  decease.  The  tables  of  The  Winds  of  the 
Globe,  were  completed  and  the  charts  for  it  were  drawn  by 
his  son.  A  discussion  and  analysis  of  the  tables  and  charts  was 
supplied  by  Prof.  Coffin's  long-time  correspondent,  Dr.  Alex- 


JAMES  HENRY  COFFIN.  457 

ander  Woeikof,  former  secretary  of  the  meteorological  commit- 
tee of  the  Imperial  Geographical  Society  of  Russia,  and  the 
work  was  issued  in  1876  as  the  twentieth  volume  of  the  Smith- 
sonian Contributions  to  Knowledge. 

In  reviewing  what  may  be  called  the  extra  labours  of  Prof. 
Coffin,  we  can  not  refrain  from  endeavouring  to  impress  upon 
the  mind  of  the  general  public  that  men  of  his  character,  who 
do  honour  to  humanity,  ought  not  to  be  suffered  to  expend 
their  energies  in  the  drilling  of  youth  in  the  mere  elements  of 
knowledge,  and  with  a  compensation  not  more  than  sufficient 
to  secure  the  necessaries  of  life ;  that  they  should  be  conse- 
crated as  officiating  priests  in  the  temple  of  knowledge,  be  fur- 
nished with  all  the  appliances  and  assistance  necessary  to  the 
accomplishment  of  their  objects,  namely,  the  extension  of  the 
bounds  of  human  thought  and  of  human  power. 


LEO   LESQUEREUX. 

1806-1889. 

AMERICAN  science  owes  an  incalculable  debt  to  the  Geneva 
Revolutionary  Council  of  1848,  that  suppressed  the  Academy 
of  Neuchatel  and  sent  to  our  shores  Agassiz,  Guyot,  and  Les- 
quereux.  In  the  heart  of  Switzerland's  mountain  grandeur  this 
illustrious  trio  first  saw  the  light  and  drank  of  that  love  of 
Nature  which,  deepening  with  the  years,  peculiarly  linked  their 
lives.  Agassiz  had  been  in  America  two  years,  when  he  was 
joined  by  Guyot  and  Lesquereux,  whose  friendship  had  been 
formed  while  they  were  collaborators  in  the  quaint  Swiss 
town. 

Leo  Lesquereux  was  born  at  Fleurier,  canton  of  Neuchatel, 
Switzerland,  November  18,  1806.  His  ancestors  were  French 
Huguenots.  His  father  was  a  manufacturer  of  watch  springs, 
and  wished  his  only  son  to  follow  the  same  trade,  as  was  the 
custom  of  the  country.  The  future  botanist's  health  being 
delicate,  however,  his  mother  desired  him  to  study  for  the 
ministry.  But  the  grandeur  of  his  mountain  home  had  already 
sunk  deep  into  the  impressible  soul  of  the  youth,  and  circum- 
stances sealed  his  preference  for  another  pursuit.  He  has  de- 
scribed himself  as  a  boy  fond  of  rocks  and  flowers  and  eager 
for  books — "a  kind  of  natural,  as  they  call  people  of  that  kind 
in  the  South."  In  order  to  prepare  for  the  university  he  was 
sent  to  an  academy  in  Neuchatel,  and  at  the  age  of  nineteen 
had  completed  his  preparations.  Among  his  fellow-pupils  at 
this  school  were  Arnold  Guyot  and  August,  a  younger  brother 
of  Louis  Agassiz.  To  Guyot  he  became  especially  attached. 
Leo's  father  was  in  only  moderate  circumstances,  and  unable 
to  defray  his  son's  expenses  at  a  university ;  he  had  paid  only 
for  the  youth's  board  at  Neuchatel,  young  Leo  having  met  his 
tuition  fees  by  teaching.  Accordingly,  the  young  man  took  a 


LEO  LESQUEREUX. 


LEO   LESQUEREUX.  459 

position  as  Professor  of  French  in  a  young  ladies  academy  at 
Eisenach,  in  Saxe-Weimar,  hoping  to  obtain  money  enough  to 
go  later  to  the  university.  "  They  were  the  happiest  days  of 
my  life,"  he  has  said  of  this  period.  "  My  pupils  were  from 
the  noble  families  of  Weimar.  They  were  well  educated,  and 
came  to  me  for  conversation.  I  remained  at  Weimar  for  some 
time.  Then  love  came  and  I  went  back  to  Switzerland,  and  I 
never  regretted  it."  He  had  been  at  Eisenach  four  years 
when  he  became  engaged  to  one  of  his  pupils.  The  young 
lady  was  of  small  fortune,  but  of  noble  family,  being  the 
daughter  of  a  distinguished  soldier,  General  Von  Wolffskel, 
an  attacht!  of  the  court  of  the  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar.  In  her 
earlier  years  she  had  received  especial  notice  from  Goethe, 
and  the  letters  of  the  poet  to  his  child  friend  were  long  proud- 
ly preserved  by  her  family.  When  the  daughter  of  the  duke 
was  united  with  Prince  William  of  Prussia,  the  future  Kaiser, 
Fraulein  Von  Wolffskel  was  one  of  the  bridesmaids.  Her 
father  was  a  man  of  learning,  with  a  strong  propensity  for 
science.  When  young  Lesquereux  was  about  to  return  to  his 
home,  the  father,  who  was  setting  out  in  the  same  direction 
invited  him  to  share  his  carriage.  The  marriage  was  agreed 
upon  during  this  journey. 

After  a  short  period  of  teaching  at  Locle,  Lesquereux  ob- 
tained the  principalship  of  an  academy  at  La  Chaux  de  Fonds, 
which  he  held  for  three  years.  A  year  after  his  return  to 
Switzerland  he  was  married,  and  brought  home  his  bride.  At 
the  wedding  the  groom's  best  man  was  a  certain  Lieutenant 
Von  Moltke.  The  name  has  become  known  in  a  higher  rank 
since.  Lesquereux  had  been  married  but  a  couple  of  years 
when  a  serious  misfortune  overtook  him.  A  fall  down  the 
mountain  side  overlooking  Fleurier  when  he  was  about  ten 
years  old  had  injured  the  hearing  of  one  ear,  and  now  he  rap- 
idly became  so  deaf  that  he  had  to  give  up  teaching  and  resort 
to  a  mechanical  trade  to  support  his  family.  He  was  at  this 
time  twenty-six  years  of  age. 

At  first  he  took  up  the  engraving  of  watch  cases,  but  find- 
ing this  work  injurious  to  his  health  he  accepted  a  partner- 
ship in  his  father's  business,  and  returned  to  his  old  home. 
"  But  I  could  not  stick  to  that  work,"  he  wrote  many  years 
after  to  Prof.  Lester  F.  Ward,  "  and  was  constantly  busy  in  my 
hours  of  rest,  that  is  mostly  in  the  night,  with  a  poor  small 


460  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

microscope,  studying  mosses,  and  on  Sundays  running  in  the 
mountains  to  gather  them." 

Lesquereux  published  some  memoirs  of  his  investigations 
which  attracted  the  attention  of  Agassiz,  then  occupying  the 
chair  of  Natural  History  in  the  newly  formed  Academy  of 
Neuchatel.  Agassiz  invited  the  author  to  visit  him  for  a 
consultation  upon  the  theories  he  had  set  forth,  and  this  visit 
was  the  beginning  of  a  friendship  that  ceased  only  with 
Agassiz's  life. 

On  account  of  the  rapid  cutting  away  of  the  forests,  the 
subject  of  fuel  for  the  poor  was  then  becoming  a  matter  of 
concern  in  Neuchatel,  and  the  government  of  the  canton 
offered  a  gold  medal  for  the  best  treatise  on  the  formation 
of  and  the  possibility  of  replenishing  the  peat  bogs.  Les- 
quereux competed  for  this  prize  and  won  it ;  his  memoir  on 
the  subject  gained  wide  reputation,  and  is  still  quoted  as  one 
of  the  best  authorities.  A  committee  of  eight  savants  was  ap- 
pointed to  explore  the  peat  deposits  of  the  canton,  in  order  to 
be  fully  informed  as  to  the  value  of  Lesquereux's  researches. 
Prof.  Agassiz,  who  was  a  member  of  this  committee,  did  not  at 
first  agree  with  his  theory,  but  after  being  out  a  few  days — 
the  committee  was  two  weeks  in  the  field — he  accepted  it  and 
became  its  ardent  supporter.  Lesquereux  was  now  employed 
by  the  canton  to  write  a  text-book  on  peat  for  the  schools,  and 
was  made  director  of  operations  in  the  peat  bogs  bought  by 
the  Government.  Under  the  patronage  of  the  King  of  Prussia 
he  also  explored  the  peat  bogs  of  the  countries  of  northern 
Europe,  and  in  this  way  became  acquainted  with  the  botany 
and  geology  of  these  districts. 

To  the  New  World  his  labours  were  now  transferred,  when, 
in  addition  to  the  misfortune  of  becoming  totally  deaf  in  the 
prime  of  life,  he  also  found  himself  deprived  of  scientific  em- 
ployment at  home  by  the  political  changes  that  followed  the 
revolution  of  1847.  He  embarked  with  his  wife  and  five  chil- 
dren as  steerage  passengers,  reaching  Boston  in  September, 
1848.  At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  that  naturalist  he  became 
a  member  of  the  household  of  Agassiz.  Here  he  worked  upon 
the  botanical  part  of  Agassiz's  Journey  to  Lake  Superior, 
until  the  eve  of  Christmas,  1848,  when,  at  the  invitation  of  the 
eminent  bryologist,  W.  S.  Sullivant,  he  went  to  Columbus,  Ohio, 
and,  entering  his  laboratory,  continued  there  the  study  of 


LEO  LESQUEREUX.  46l 

mosses.  At  the  close  of  the  year  1849,  under  the  advice  and 
with  the  co-operation  of  Mr.  Sullivant,  he  made  a  tour  of  ex- 
ploration among  the  mountains  of  the  Southern  States,  for  the 
collection  of  plant  specimens,  and  secured  a  great  variety  of 
plants,  which  found  a  ready  sale  among  students  of  botany. 
He  was  particularly  successful  in  the  collection  of  mosses. 
The  preparation  of  the  specimens,  their  determination  and 
distribution,  gave  him  employment  for  two  years,  and  resulted 
in  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to  American  bry- 
ology— the  Musci  Americani  Exsiccati,  by  W.  S.  Sullivant  and 
L.  Lesquereux.  The  expense  of  preparation  and  publication 
of  this  work  was  defrayed  by  Mr.  Sullivant,  who,  taking  only 
a  few  copies  for  presentation,  allowed  his  colleague  the  benefit 
of  the  sales  of  the  rest.  Using  that  author's  library  and  her- 
barium Lesquereux  lent  most  valuable  assistance  to  the  prepa- 
ration of  Mr.  Sullivant's  works  on  the  mosses  of  the  Wilkes 
South  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  Whipple's  Pacific  Rail- 
road Exploration,  and  the  Icones  Muscorum. 

Sullivant  had  collected  materials  for  a  complete  account 
of  the  North  American  moss  flora,  which  he  hoped  to  publish. 
After  his  death,  at  the  urgent  request  of  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  Les- 
quereux undertook  to  complete  the  task.  A  large  part  of  the 
work  was  done  when,  in  1869,  his  sight  became  impaired,  and 
Prof.  Thomas  P.  James,  of  Cambridge,  was  enlisted  in  this 
labour.  He  made  the  microscopical  examinations  that  were 
still  to  be  done,  but  his  death  caused  another  delay,  and  it  was 
not  till  1884  that  the  Manual  of  North  American  Mosses  was 
finally  issued. 

The  publication  of  Brongniart's  Prodrome,  and  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Histoire  des  Vdgtfaux  Fossils,  in  1828,  laid 
the  solid  basis  upon  which  the  science  of  paleobotany  has  been 
erected.  Lesquereux  began  to  write  on  this  subject  in  1845, 
and  his  studies  in  America  have  been  directed  especially  in 
the  line  of  fossil  botany.  His  most  valuable  researches,  be- 
ginning in  1850,  lay  in  the  study  of  the  coal  formations  of 
Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  Kentucky,  and  Arkansas,  and  his 
reports  appear  in  the  geological  surveys  of  all  these  States. 
He  had  conceived  that  his  theory  of  the  formation  of  peat 
could  be  extended  to  the  coal,  and  this  proved  to  be  the  case. 
Particularly  important  are  his  studies  of  the  coal  flora  of  Penn- 
sylvania, published  in  the  report  of  H.  D.  Rogers  in  1858, 


462 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 


together  with  a  Catalogue  of  the  Fossil  Plants  which  have 
been  named  or  described  from  the  coal  measures  of  North 
America.  Lesquereux  also  worked  up  the  coal  flora  in  the 
second  geological  survey  of  Pennsylvania.  The  fruit  of  this 
labour  was  two  volumes  of  text  and  an  atlas,  published  in  1880 
— the  most  important  work  on  carboniferous  plants  that  has 
been  produced  in  America.  Geological  work,  especially  re- 
searches on  fossil  botany,  in  connection  with  the  United  States 
Geological  Surveys  of  the  Territories,  began  in  1868  to  absorb 
his  attention.  He  was  employed  to  work  up  the  collections  of 
Dr.  F.  V.  Hayden's  surveys  of  the  Territories,  and  important 
papers  on  the  subject  appeared  in  the  annual  reports  of  the 
surveys  from  1870  to  1874  inclusive.  Lesquereux  was  fre- 
quently called  to  Cambridge  to  determine  the  specimens  of 
fossil  plants  in  Prof.  Agassiz's  museum,  where  he  was  a  guest 
in  the  naturalist's  household  for  weeks  and  months  at  a  time, 
and  their  mutual  attachment  grew  very  strong. 

Lesquereux,  during  his  long  and  industrious  life,  contrib- 
uted twelve  important  works  to  the  natural  history  of  North 
America,  besides  a  large  number  of  memoirs  on  divers  sub- 
jects, amounting  in  all  to  about  fifty  publications.  He  was  a 
member  or  correspondent  of  more  than  twenty  scientific  so- 
cieties of  Europe  and  America,  and  was  the  first  elected  mem- 
ber of  the  National  Academy  of  Sciences.  The  degree  of 
LL.  D.  was  given  him  in  1875  by  Marietta  College.  He  was 
in  close  correspondence  with  all  the  leading  paleontologists  of 
Europe,  Oswald  Heer  being  one  of  his  particular  friends. 

The  characteristic  works  of  the  most  eminent  scientific 
writers  of  the  age  comprised  his  library.  Brongniart,  who 
laid  the  foundation  of  paleobotany;  Goppert,  who  built  its 
superstructure ;  Schimper,  Heer,  Dawson,  Ettingshausen,  New- 
berry,  the  Marquis  Gaston  de  Saporta,  together  with  Grande 
Eury  and  Renault,  who  thoroughly  studied  the  carboniferous 
flora  of  France ;  Williamson,  who  mastered  that  of  England ; 
Nathorst,  who  opened  up  the  subterranean  floral  treasures  of 
Sweden ;  Engelhardt,  Hosius,  Under  Marck  and  Schenk,  who 
investigated  without  exhausting  the  rich  plant  beds  of  Ger- 
many— all  were  numbered  among  Lesquereux's  friends  and 
correspondents. 

The  fraternal  bond  that  binds  the  scientific  world  is  almost 
indissoluble.  When  once  asked  if  his  long  and  intimate  associ- 


LEO  LESQUEREUX.  463 

ations  with  so  many  illustrious  minds  had  not  stored  his  mem- 
ory with  anecdote  and  reminiscence,  Lesquereux  responded : 
"  The  science  students'  life  is  absorbed  with  grave  and  serious 
truths ;  they  are  naturally  serious  men.  My  associations  have 
been  almost  entirely  of  a  scientific  nature.  My  deafness  cut 
me  off  from  everything  that  lay  outside  of  science.  I  have 
lived  with  Nature,  the  rocks,  the  trees,  the  flowers.  They  know 
me,  I  know  them.  All  outside  are  dead  to  me." 

Dr.  Lesquereux's  death  occurred  at  his  modest  home  in  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  on  October  25,  1889.  His  wife  had  shortly  gone  be- 
fore. He  lived  and  died  in  the  communion  of  the  Lutheran 
Church,  and  never  felt  the  essentials  of  his  religious  belief  dis- 
turbed by  the  advances  of  science.  A  visitor  described  him  at 
the  age  of  eighty  as  "  a  middle-sized  man  with  dark  eyes  that 
flashed  with  mirthfulness  when  tie  spoke,  and  a  step  so  brisk, 
and  hair  and  beard  so  free  from  time  strokes,  that  the  long- 
cherished  patriarchal  vision  of  the  botanist's  appearance  van- 
ished." 

Four  sons  and  one  daughter  lived  to  adult  age.  The  sons 
followed  in  their  father's  footsteps,  not  in  the  pursuit  of  sci- 
ence, but  by  becoming  watchmakers. 

The  last  work  upon  which  Prof.  Lesquereux  was  engaged 
was  an  important  treatise  on  The  Flora  of  the  Dakota  Group, 
which  was  published  posthumously  under  the  editorship  of  Mr. 
F.  H.  Knowlton  as  Monograph  17  of  the  United  States  Geo- 
logical Survey,  in  1891. 


MATTHEW    FONTAINE    MAURY. 

1806-1873. 

MRS.  CORBIN,  Lieutenant  Maury's  daughter  and  biographer, 
claims  for  her  father  the  recognition  of  the  whole  civilized 
world ;  for,  she  says,  "  the  best  part  of  his  life  was  devoted 
to  the  performance  of  services  which  conferred  benefits  on  the 
seafaring  class  of  all  countries,  while  the  ideas  to  which  he 
first  gave  birth  have  since  borne  fruit,  and  are  likely  to  be 
useful  to  the  whole  human  race."  She  adds  that  "  in  Maury  we 
have  two  characteristics,  each  valuable  in  itself,  but  which 
almost  invariably  produce  great  results  when  they  are  combined. 
He  was  endowed  with  extraordinary  powers  of  application  and 
unflagging  industry  in  working  out  the  driest  details.  But  he 
also  possessed  a  vivid  imagination,  so  that  the  dry  bones  of 
his  new  science  were  endowed  with  life  and  interest  by  the 
magic  touch  of  his  descriptive  pen.  It  was  Maury  who  created 
the  science  of  the  physical  geography  of  the  sea,  and  gave  that 
impetus  to  its  study  which,  in  other  hands,  continues  to  pro- 
duce results  alike  of  practical  and  speculative  importance." 

Matthew  Fontaine  Maury  was  born  in  Spottsylvania  County, 
Virginia,  January  24,  1806,  and  died  in  Lexington,  Va.,  Febru- 
ary i,  1873.  He  was  descended  on  his  father's  side  from  two 
families  of  Huguenot  exiles,  connected  by  marriage  before 
they  left  France,  who  settled  in  Virginia  in  1714.  His  father, 
Richard  Maury,  was  the  sixth  son  of  the  Rev.  James  Maury, 
an  Episcopal  clergyman  and  teacher  of  Albemarle  County, 
Virginia,  who  numbered  among  his  pupils  three  boys  who  after- 
ward became  Presidents  of  the  United  States,  and  five  signers 
of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  This  scholar  appears 
to  have  been  already  interested  in  the  great  Northwest,  and 
his  speculations  respecting  the  Missouri  River,  the  Western 
mountains,  and  the  rivers  beyond  them,  then  hardly  known, 
greatly  impressed  his  pupil  Jefferson,  who,  when  he  became 

464 


MATTHEW   FONTAINE    MAURY. 


MATTHEW  FONTAINE   MAURY.  465 

President,  secured  the  despatch  of  the  expedition  of  Lewis  and 
Clark.  In  1790  Richard  Maury  married  Diana,  daughter  of 
Major  John  Minor,  of  Topping  Castle,  in  Caroline  County,  and 
settled  in  Spottsylvania  County,  about  ten  miles  west  of  Fred- 
ericksburg.  Nine  children  were  the  fruit  of  this  marriage, 
Matthew  being  the  seventh,  and  the  fourth  of  the  five  sons. 

When  young  Matthew  was  in  his  fifth  year  the  family  re- 
moved to  Tennessee,  near  Franklin,  where  they  lived  the  life  of 
early  settlers  in  a  new  country.  The  father  was  very  exact  in 
the  religious  training  of  his  children,  assembling  them  morning 
and  evening  to  read  the  Psalter  for  the  day,  verse  and  verse 
about.  Matthew's  first  ambition  to  become  a  mathematician 
was  excited  by  an  old  cobbler  "who  used  to  send  the  shoes 
home  to  his  customers  with  the  soles  all  scratched  over  with 
little  .r's  and  jy's."  A  fall  from  a  tree  in  his  twelfth  year,  by 
which  his  back  was  injured,  seems  to  have  marked  the  turning 
point  of  his  life.  His  father,  thinking  him  permanently  dis- 
abled, yielded  to  his  wish  and  sent  him  to  Harpeth  Academy, 
of  which  the  Rev.  J.  H.  Otey,  afterward  Protestant  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Tennessee,  and  William  C.  Hasbrouck,  were  the 
teachers. 

In  1825  he  obtained,  through  the  Hon.  Sam  Houston,  a 
midshipman's  warrant  in  the  United  States  Navy.  His  father 
did  not  approve  the  career  to  which  this  pointed,  for  his  eldest 
son,  John  Minor,  had  died  of  yellow  fever  in  the  service  the 
year  before.  Still  he  did  not  positively  forbid  Matthew  to  ac- 
cept the  appointment,  so,  having  thirty  dollars  which  he  had 
earned  by  doing  tutor's  work  in  the  academy,  young  Maury 
bought  a  gray  mare,  to  be  paid  for  when  he  should  sell  her 
at  the  end  of  his  journey,  and  started  on  his  own  account  for  the 
East.  After  travelling  two  weeks  he  came  among  his  Virgin- 
ian kinsfolk  in  Albemarle  County,  where  he  sold  the  mare  and 
despatched  the  money  she  brought  to  her  former  owner.  Here 
he  saw  little  Nannie  Herndon,  then  a  girl  of  twelve  or  thirteen 
years,  who  was  afterward  to  become  his  wife.  She  was  the 
eldest  child  of  Elizabeth  Hull  and  Dabney  Herndon,  of  Fred- 
ericksburg.  There  was  no  naval  academy  then,  and  young 
Maury  went  on  shipboard  at  once.  He  soon  showed  that  his 
mind  was  set  upon  mastering  the  theory  and  practice  of  his 
profession.  "  It  is  related  by  some  of  his  companions  of  that 
period,"  says  Mrs.  Corbin,  "how  he  would  chalk  diagrams  in 


466  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

spherical  trigonometry  on  the  round  shot  in  the  quarterdeck 
racks,  to  enable  himself  to  master  problems,  while  pacing  to 
and  fro,  passing  and  repassing  the  shot  racks  on  his  watch." 
With  an  old  Spanish  work  on  navigation,  he  pursued  the  double 
object  of  studying  the  Spanish  language  and  adding  to  his 
stock  of  nautical  information.  His  first  voyage  was  to  Eng- 
land, in  the  Brandywine,  which  conveyed  General  Lafayette 
home  to  France;  his  next  was  in  the  Vincennes,  round  the 
world.  On  this  voyage  he  constructed  a  set  of  lunar  tables 
and  prepared  himself  for  examination. 

During  his  next  cruise  of  four  years  on  the  Falmouth,  Dol- 
phin, and  Potomac,  beginning  in  1831,  Maury  conceived  the 
idea  of  his  current  and  wind  charts ;  observed  and  began  to 
study  the  curious  phenomenon  of  the  low  barometer  off  Cape 
Horn,  concerning  which  he  wrote  his  first  scientific  paper — for 
the  American  Journal  of  Science ;  and  began  to  prepare  for  the 
press  a  work  on  navigation,  for  which  he  had  been  several 
years  collecting  the  material.  It  was  published  in  1835,  was 
favourably  noticed  in  England,  and  was  used  as  a  text-book  in 
the  United  States  Navy.  Immediately  after  his  return  home 
on  the  Potomac,  in  1834,  he  married  Miss  Ann  Herndon,  to 
whom  he  had  been  engaged  since  he  was  last  on  shore. 

Maury  next  received  an  appointment  as  astronomer  and 
hydrographer  on  the  South  Sea  Exploring  Expedition,  which 
was  to  go  out  under  Commodore  Catesby  Jones,  and,  prepara- 
tory to  it,  practised  in  the  use  of  the  telescope,  transit  instru- 
ment, and  theodolite;  but,  Captain  Wilkes  succeeding  to  the 
command,  he  resigned,  in  order  to  permit  the  new  commander 
to  select  his  own  associates.  He  was  then  assigned  the  duty  of 
making  surveys  of  Southern  harbours.  While  travelling  on 
leave  of  absence  from  this  work,  his  leg  was  broken  by  the 
overturning  of  a  stagecoach,  whereby  he  was  disabled  from  ac- 
tive service  for  several  years.  The  misfortune  is  regarded  by 
his  biographer  as  having  been  a  "  blessing  in  disguise  " ;  for  it 
caused  his  mind  to  turn  more  intently  to  the  scientific  side  of 
his  work,  and  thus  contributed  indirectly  to  the  fruitfulness  of 
thought  by  which  his  after-life  was  distinguished. 

A  series  of  articles  on  naval  reform  and  kindred  subjects, 
entitled  Scraps  from  the  Lucky-Bag,  published  by  Maury  under 
the  pen-name  of  Harry  Bluff,  attracted  attention  and  approval. 
Among  the  points  discussed  in  them — most  of  which  were 


MATTHEW  FONTAINE   MAURY.  467 

brought  up  for  the  first  time — were  the  adoption  of  steam  as  a 
motive  power;  great-circle  sailing;  the  establishment  of  navy 
yards  and  forts  at  Memphis  and  Pensacola ;  the  use  of  blank 
charts  on  board  public  cruisers;  the  Gulf  Stream  and  its 
causes ;  the  connection  of  terrestrial  magnetism  with  the  circu- 
lation of  the  atmosphere ;  and  a  ship  canal  from  the  Illinois 
River  to  Lake  Michigan.  The  papers  gave  their  author  fame, 
and  secured  respect  for  his  opinions  on  naval  questions.  Cer- 
tain journals  even  urged  his  appointment  as  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  He  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Depot  of  Charts  and 
Instruments  at  Washington,  an  office  which  was  developed  into 
the  Naval  Observatory  and  Hydrographical  Department.  "  No 
man,"  said  Senator  John  Bell,  "  could  have  been  found  in  the 
country  better  fitted  than  Maury  for  this  difficult  duty ;  and  he 
worked  with  the  zeal  and  energy  that  were  expected  of  him." 

One  of  Maury's  first  enterprises  in  this  office  was  the  com- 
pilation of  his  wind  and  current  charts  and  sailing  directions. 
He  had  already,  as  sailing  master  of  the  Falmouth,  in  1831, 
observed  the  want  of  trustworthy  information  concerning  the 
winds  and  currents  encountered  by  mariners.  He  then  re- 
solved, if  he  ever  had  opportunity,  to  compile  such  information 
from  the  store  of  old  log  books  in  the  Hydrographical  Bureau 
of  the  Naval  Department.  This  he  now  did,  and  his  charts 
and  sailing  directions  were  furnished  to  the  masters  of  vessels 
bound  for  foreign  ports,  who  in  turn  supplied  the  results  of 
their  own  observations.  The  most  favourable  reports  came  in 
of  the  value  of  the  work,  and  it  was  illustrated  by  some  then 
really  wonderful  incidents. 

The  fact  was  demonstrated  in  American  and  English  jour- 
nals that,  by  the  mere  shortening  of  voyages  they  made  possi- 
ble, these  charts  effected  a  very  great  saving  in  the  expense  of 
commerce  between  distant  ports.  Testimony  was  repeatedly 
borne  to  their  value  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Navy  Depart- 
ment and  of  congressional  committees.  Secretary  Dobbin  re- 
ported, in  1855,  that  other  maritime  nations,  appreciating  the 
value  of  this  plan  of  investigation,  had  united  in  a  common 
system  of  observations  for  its  further  prosecution  ;  and  that  it 
was  suggested  by  Lieutenant  Maury  that  the  same  system  of 
meteorological  research,  "  if  extended  to  the  land,  would  afford 
for  the  agricultural  interests  of  the  country,  and  for  science 
too,  results  quite  as  important  as  those  which  commerce  and 


468  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

navigation  have  already  received  from  it."  While  analyzing 
and  tabulating  these  "  millions  of  observations,"  Maury  wrote 
his  Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea,  which  took  rank  at  once  as 
a  masterly  as  well  as  a  charming  work.  In  the  preface  to  it 
the  author  attributed  such  success  as  he  had  achieved  to  the 
observance  of  the  rule  "  to  keep  the  mind  unbiased  by  theories 
and  speculations ;  never  to  have  any  wish  that  an  investigation 
should  result  in  favour  of  this  view  in  preference  to  that;  and 
never  to  attempt  by  premature  speculation  to  anticipate  the  re- 
sults of  investigations,  but  always  to  trust  to  the  investigations 
themselves."  The  book  met  a  large  demand  at  home  and 
abroad,  more  than  twenty  editions  having  been  sold  in  Eng- 
land alone ;  and  it  was  translated  into  the  French,  Dutch,  Ital- 
ian, Swedish,  and  Spanish  languages.  Following  this  came  the 
assembling  of  the  Meteorological  Congress  at  Brussels,  in  1853, 
of  the  chief  nations  interested  in  commerce,  at  which  a  uniform 
system  of  observations  on  land  and  at  sea  was  resolved  upon. 
Among  the  incidents  of  the  conference  was  a  letter  in  1857  from 
Humboldt,  "  at  the  age  of  ninety  years,"  relating  to  its  results, 
and  offering  "  to  my  illustrious  friend  and  associate  .  .  .  the 
tribute  of  my  respectful  admiration.  ...  It  belongs  to  me, 
more  than  to  any  traveller  of  the  age,  to  congratulate  my 
illustrious  friend  upon  the  course  which  he  has  so  gloriously 
opened." 

Lieutenant  Maury,  after  returning  from  the  Brussels  Con- 
ference, pressed  the  scheme  of  co-operation  in  the  meteorolog- 
ical observations  on  land.  In  addresses  delivered  at  agricul- 
tural societies  in  1855  he  urged  farmers  to  make  daily  observa- 
tions of  weather  conditions  and  the  state  and  yield  of  the 
crops,  to  be  sent  to  him,  as  sailors  were  sending  their  observa- 
tions at  sea ;  and  he  advised  them  to  seek  from  Congress 
measures  for  the  establishment  of  a  central  office  where  these 
reports  could  be  digested  and  the  results  sent  monthly,  weekly, 
or  even  daily,  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  so  that  farmers  could 
be  "warned  of  the  approach  of  storms,  severe  frosts,  etc.,  that 
might  prove  injurious  to  the  crops."  He  defined  this  proposi- 
tion in  an  address  before  the  United  States  Agricultural  So- 
ciety in  January,  1856,  as  a  concerted  plan,  the  idea  of  which 
was  to  spread  the  network  of  instruments  and  observers  in  this 
country  and  over  other  parts  of  the  world  also,  to  which  he 
was  assured  the  co-operation  of  men  of  science  abroad  would 


MATTHEW  FONTAINE  MAURY. 


469 


be  given.  About  three  years  afterward,  in  an  address  at  De- 
catur,  Ala.,  as  if  foreseeing  that  his  services  might  become  for- 
gotten, he  said :  "  Take  notice,  now,  that  this  plan  of  crop  and 
weather  reports  is  my  thunder;  and  if  you  see  some  one  in 
Washington  running  away  with  it,  then  recollect,  if  you  please, 
where  the  lightning  came  from."  The  whole  record  of  Maury's 
meteorological  work,  and  his  part  in  advocating  this  plan,  were 
reviewed  by  Senator  Harlan,  in  a  committee  report  to  the 
United  States  Senate,  made  in  1857.  His  scheme  also  em- 
braced a  system  of  meteorological  observations  on  the  Great 
Lakes.  Records  had  already  been  kept  for  many  years  by  the 
army,  to  which,  Maury  acknowledged,  "  alone  we  are  indebted 
for  almost  all  we  know  concerning  the  climatology  of  the  coun- 
try " ;  but  he  explained  that  their  value  was  retrospective ; 
while  the  observations  he  proposed  were  to  be  used  for  predic- 
tions and  warnings  of  what  the  weather  was  to  be. 

As  early  as  1848  Maury  had  concluded,  from  his  investiga- 
tions of  the  winds  and  currents,  that  a  broad  and  level  plateau 
— the  "  telegraphic  plateau  " — existed  at  the  bottom  of  the 
ocean  between  Newfoundland  and  Ireland.  His  view  was  con- 
firmed by  the  deep-sea  soundings  that  were  taken  at  his  in- 
stance between  1849  and  1853;  and  early  in  1854  he  reported 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  that,  so  far  as  the  bottom  of  the 
deep  sea  was  concerned,  a  submarine  telegraph  between  New- 
foundland and  Ireland  was  practicable.  A  plateau  seemed  to 
have  been  placed  there  especially  for  holding  the  wires  and 
keeping  them  out  of  harm's  way.  His  views  respecting  the 
manner  of  constructing  cables  were  confirmed,  both  in  the  be- 
haviour of  the  first  cable,  constructed  differently  from  them, 
which  failed,  and  the  others,  made  more  in  harmony  with  them, 
which  were  successful.  At  the  dinner  given  in  celebration  of 
the  arrival  of  the  first  message  across  the  Atlantic,  Mr.  Cyrus 
W.  Field  said,  referring  to  the  enterprise,  "  Maury  furnished 
the  brains,  England  gave  the  money,  and  I  did  the  work." 

A  painful  surprise  came  to  Lieutenant  Maury  when  the 
Naval  Retiring  Board,  under  the  act  of  Congress  of  February 
28,  1855,  placed  him  on  the  retired  list  on  leave-of-absence  pay, 
but  without  detaching  him  from  the  Naval  Observatory.  He 
regarded  the  act  as  an  indignity.  He  wrote  to  three  of  the 
Secretaries  of  the  Navy  under  whom  he  had  served  for  expres- 
sions concerning  his  efficiency,  particularly  inquiring  why  he 


470 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


had  been  kept  at  the  observatory  instead  of  being  sent  to  sea. 
Ex-Secretary  Graham  answered :  "  I  considered  your  services 
at  the  National  Observatory  of  far  more  importance  and  value 
to  the  country  and  the  navy  than  any  that  could  be  rendered 
by  an  officer  of  your  grade  at  sea  in  the  time  of  peace.  Indeed, 
I  doubt  whether  the  triumphs  of  navigation  and  of  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  sea  achieved  under  your  superintendence  of  the 
observatory  will  not  contribute  as  much  to  an  effective  naval 
service  and  to  the  national  fame  as  the  brilliant  trophies  of  our 
arms."  Mr.  John  P.  Kennedy  wrote,  "  From  my  knowledge  of 
the  nature  of  your  scientific  pursuits,  their  usefulness  to  the 
country,  and  your  devotion  to  them,  I  can  say  that  nothing  but 
such  an  emergency  as  left  me  no  alternative  would  have  in- 
duced me  to  withdraw  you  from  your  labours  at  the  observa- 
tory by  an  order  to  go  to  sea."  Mr.  William  Ballard  Preston 
wrote  to  similar  effect.  In  the  following  winter  Maury  was, 
by  special  act  of  Congress,  reinstated  and  promoted  to  the 
rank  of  commander,  with  back  pay  from  the  date  of  his  retire- 
ment. 

Other  schemes  discussed  by  Lieutenant  Maury  in  general  or 
special  papers  included  the  location  of  lighthouses  on  the 
Florida  and  Gulf  coasts;  systematic  observations  of  the  rise 
and  fall  of  the  water  in  the  Mississippi  River  and  its  tributaries, 
with  gauges  at  all  the  principal  towns ;  the  redemption  of  the 
"  drowned  lands  "  of  the  Mississippi ;  navigation  by  great-circle 
routes ;  a  ship  canal  and  railroad  across  the  Isthmus,  which  he 
insisted  should  be  by  way  of  Panama  or  Nicaragua  rather 
than  Tehuantepec;  the  establishment  of  a  great  port  at  Nor- 
folk, Va. ;  and  the  colonization  of  the  surplus  black  and  other 
population  of  the  South  in  the  valley  of  the  Amazon.  The 
Darien  expedition  of  Lieutenant  Strain  and  Lieutenant  Hern- 
don's  exploration  of  the  Amazon  were  connected  with  two  of 
these  schemes.  The  "  lane  route,"  followed  by  some  of  the 
transatlantic  steamship  lines,  originated  in  the  publication  by 
Maury,  in  1855,  of  a  chart  on  which  two  lanes  were  laid  down, 
each  twenty-five  miles  broad,  by  following  which  the  danger  of 
collisions  might  be  reduced.  In  acknowledgment  of  the  value 
of  the  service  rendered  by  this  plan,  and  by  the  wind  and  cur- 
rent charts  and  sailing  directions,  the  merchants  and  under- 
writers of  New  York  presented  him  with  five  thousand  dollars 
in  gold  and  a  handsome  service  of  silver. 


MATTHEW   FONTAINE   MAURY.  471 

When  the  Ordinance  of  Secession  was  passed  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  Virginia,  Commander  Maury  believed  that  his  para- 
mount obligation  was  to  his  native  State.  He  accordingly  left 
the  service  of  the  United  States  and  identified  his  fortunes  with 
those  of  Virginia  and  the  Confederacy.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  of  his  disinterestedness  in  taking  this  course.  His  mer- 
its and  the  value  of  his  services  were  generally  recognised 
throughout  the  North,  and  he  had  but  recently  given  courses 
of  lectures  in  the  principal  towns  and  cities,  which  were  a  series 
of  popular  ovations  to  him.  In  going  into  the  service  of  the 
Confederacy  he  put  himself  under  the  direction,  as  his  imme- 
diate superiors,  of  two  men  who,  as  United  States  Senators, 
had  been  prominent  in  opposition  to  his  reinstatement  after  he 
had  been  put  upon  the  retired  list,  and  who  are  said  to  have  been 
hostile  to  him  before  the  war  and  through  it.  Of  the  manner  of 
his  leaving  the  service  of  the  United  States,  he  said,  May  12, 
1861,  in  a  letter  to  a  friend  in  Newburg,  N.  Y. :  "I  only  saw 
last  night  the  remarks  of  the  Boston  Traveller  about  Lieuten- 
ant Maury's  treachery,  his  desertion,  removal  of  buoys.  It's 
all  a  lie !  I  resigned  and  left  the  observatory  on  Saturday  the 
1 2th  ult.  I  worked  as  hard  and  as  faithfully  for  *  Uncle  Sam' 
up  to  three  o'clock  of  that  day  as  I  ever  did,  and  at  three 
o'clock  I  turned  everything — all  the  public  property  and  rec- 
ords of  the  office — regularly  over  to  Lieutenant  Whiting,  the 
proper  officer  in  charge.  I  left  in  press  Nautical  Monograph, 
No.  3,  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  I  ever  made  to 
navigation ;  and,  just  as  I  left  it,  it  is  now  in  course  of  publi- 
cation there,  though  I  shall  probably  not  have  the  privilege  of 
reading  the  proof.  ...  As  for  the  buoys,  I  touched  them  not !  " 
The  Grand  Duke  Constantine  and  Napoleon  III  offered  him 
positions  in  Russia  and  France,  respectively,  which  he  declined. 
He  became  a  member  of  a  Council  of  Three  to  assist  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Virginia,  and  in  June,  1861,  was  appointed  Chief  of 
the  Seacoast,  Harbour,  and  River  Defences  of  the  South.  He 
assisted  in  fitting  out  the  Merrimac;  invented  a  torpedo  to  be 
used  for  harbour  and  land  defence ;  and  was  engaged,  in  the 
summer  of  1862,  in  mining  the  James  River  below  all  the  de- 
fences, when  he  was  ordered  to  go  to  Europe  to  purchase  tor- 
pedo material.  During  the  first  and  second  years  of  the  war 
he  published  a  series  of  papers  urging  the  building  of  a  navy, 
and  of  protecting  the  bays  and  rivers  with  small  floating  bat- 


472 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


teries.  He  stayed  in  England,  on  Confederate  business,  till 
the  surrender  of  Lee,  when  he  despatched  a  letter  to  the  United 
States  officer  commanding  the  squadron  of  the  Gulf,  declaring 
that  he  regarded  himself  in  the  relation  to  the  United  States 
substantially  of  a  prisoner  of  war.  He  then  offered  his  services 
to  Maximilian  in  Mexico,  and  accepted  the  position  of  Director 
of  the  Imperial  Observatory.  A  plan  he  had  conceived  for  the 
formation  of  a  colony  of  Virginians  in  Mexico  was  accepted  by 
Maximilian,  and  he  was  appointed  Imperial  Commissioner  for 
Colonization.  The  scheme  was,  however,  abandoned  as  soon  as 
Maury  left  Mexico  to  return  to  England.  His  course  in  this 
matter  was  not  approved  by  his  friends,  either  in  Europe  or  in 
America.  It  is  claimed  that  he  performed  one  great  service 
for  Mexico  during  his  short  career  there,  in  introducing  the 
cultivation  of  the  cinchona  tree. 

Returning  to  England  in  March,  1866,  whither  most  of  his 
family  had  preceded  him,  Maury  was  given  a  testimonial,  by 
naval  and  scientific  men,  in  recognition  of  his  scientific  worth 
and  service.  He  was  employed  in  Paris,  by  Napoleon  III,  to 
instruct  a  board  of  French  officers  in  his  system  of  defensive 
sea  mining.  Returning  to  London,  he  opened  a  school  of  in- 
struction in  electric  torpedoes,  which  was  attended — at  the  ex- 
pense of  their  governments — by  naval  officers  of  Sweden,  Hol- 
land, and  other  nations.  At  the  instance  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Richard- 
son, a  New  York  publisher,  he  undertook  a  series  of  geographical 
text-books,  saying  as  he  went  to  his  task,  "  I  could  not  wind  up 
my  career  more  usefully  (and  usefulness  is  both  honour  and 
glory)  than  by  helping  to  shape  the  character  and  mould  the 
destinies  of  the  rising  generation."  He  also  wrote  a  popular 
book  on  astronomy,  which  has  never  been  published. 

In  1868  Maury  received  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge,  along  with  Alfred  Tennyson,  Max  Miil- 
ler,  and  Mr.  Wright,  the  Egyptologist.  In  the  same  year  he 
declined  an  invitation  from  Napoleon  III  to  the  directorship  of 
the  Imperial  Observatory  of  France.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
general  amnesty  act  to  return  to  the  United  States,  he  de- 
clined the  superintendency  of  the  University  of  the  South  at 
Suwanee,  Tenn.,  to  accept  the  professorship  of  Meteorology  at 
the  Virginia  Military  Institute.  Pending  his  entrance  upon  the 
duties  of  this  position,  he  considered  a  scheme  for  establishing 
a  line  of  steamers  between  Norfolk  and  Flushing  in  Holland. 


MATTHEW  FONTAINE  MAURY. 


473 


During  the  last  four  years  of  his  life  he  worked  at  a  meteoro- 
logical survey  of  Virginia.  He  engaged  actively  again  in  the 
advocacy  of  his  old  scheme  for  a  Telegraphic  Meteorological 
Bureau,  in  furtherance  of  which  he  repeated  an  address  in 
Boston  and  Missouri  and  several  places  in  the  South.  A  paper 
on  this  subject,  presented  to  the  International  Congress,  at  St. 
Petersburg,  for  the  Advancement  of  Geographic  Knowledge, 
etc.,  was  unanimously  approved  by  that  body.  The  exposure 
incident  to  travel  in  fulfilling  his  lecturing  appointments 
brought  on  the  illness  which  ended  with  his  death ;  but  he  con- 
tinued, to  within  a  few  days  of  that  event,  dictating  and  revis- 
ing the  last  edition  of  his  Physical  Geography. 

Commander  Maury  is  described  by  his  daughter  as  having 
been  a  stout  man,  about  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  with 
fresh,  ruddy  complexion,  curling  brown  hair,  and  with  every 
feature  of  his  bright  countenance  bespeaking  intellect,  kindli- 
ness, and  force  of  character.  "  His  fine  blue  eyes  beamed  from 
under  his  broad  forehead  with  thought  and  emotion,  while  his 
flexible  mouth  smiled  with  the  pleasure  of  imparting  to  others 
the  ideas  which  were  ever  welling  up  in  his  active  brain.  .  .  .  His 
conversation  was  enjoyed  by  all  who  ever  met  him  ;  he  listened 
and  learned  while  he  conversed,  and  adapted  himself  to  every 
capacity.  He  especially  delighted  in  the  company  of  young 
people,  to  whom  his  playful  humour  and  gentle  consideration 
made  him  very  winning."  N.  P.  Willis,  speaking  of  him  to  a 
friend,  said  that  he  made  him  subject  to  his  personal  magnet- 
ism, and,  during  a  trip  while  they  were  together,  "  unconsciously 
furnished  an  exquisitely  interesting  study  of  character."  He 
was  a  firm  believer  in  the  Christian  religion,  but  did  not  join 
the  Church  till  1867,  when  he  was  confirmed  with  his-children 
in  the  Episcopal  Church. 

Maury  had  eight  children,  five  daughters  and  three  sons. 
His  biographer  was  his  second  child,  Diana  Fontaine,  who  mar- 
ried Mr.  S.  W.  Corbin,  of  Farleyvale,  Va.  He  had  pet  nick- 
names for  all  except  the  eldest,  and  the  children  knew  that 
something  was  wrong  if  he  called  them  by  anything  else.  He 
never  found  it  necessary  to  shut  himself  up  away  from  their 
noise  to  work,  and  as  they  grew  old  enough  they  gave  him  in 
turn  much  valuable  aid  as  amanuenses. 

Maury's  published  works,  books,  pamphlets,  and  official 
papers  were  numerous,  and  bore  reference  to  the  researches 


474 


PIONEERS  OF  SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 


which  have  been  described  in  this  sketch,  concerning  which 
they  stand  as  original  authorities.  Orders  were  conferred  upon 
him  by  the  sovereigns  of  Russia,  Denmark,  Portugal,  Belgium, 
and  France ;  gold  medals  by  those  of  Prussia,  Austria,  Sweden, 
Holland,  Sardinia,  France,  and  the  free  city  of  Bremen ;  and 
other  honours  by  the  Pope  and  Maximilian.  He  was  a  member 
of  ten  foreign  and  four  American  scientific  and  historical  socie- 
ties that  are  named,  and  of  many  other  learned  bodies  of  which 
the  records  were  lost  during  the  war. 


JEAN  LOUIS   RODOLPHE  AGASSIZ. 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ. 

1807-1873. 

JEAN  Louis  RODOLPHE  AGASSIZ  was  born  in  the  Swiss  vil- 
lage of  Metier,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Morat,  May  28,  1807. 
His  father,  Louis  Rodolphe  Agassiz,  was  a  clergyman ;  his 
mother,  Rose  Mayor,  was  the  daughter  of  a  physician  of  Cud- 
refin,  a  village  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Neuchatel,  about  four 
miles  away.  Having  lost  her  first  four  children  in  infancy  his 
mother  watched  anxiously  over  his  early  years. 

Louis's  interest  in  the  animal  kingdom  appeared  at  an  early 
age.  A  great  stone  basin  behind  the  parsonage  house,  through 
which  a  pure  spring  of  water  always  flowed,  was  his  first  aquari- 
um. He  had  also  a  variety  of  other  pets — birds,  field-mice, 
hares,  rabbits,  guinea-pigs,  etc.  Although  fish  are  commonly 
looked  upon  as  among  the  most  intractable  of  animals,  young 
Louis  early  gained  such  a  knowledge  of  their  haunts  and  habits 
as  to  have  a  surprising  power  over  them.  He  and  his  brother 
Auguste,  two  years  younger  than  Louis,  had  little  need  of 
hook  or  net  for  capturing  the  finny  denizens  of  the  lake. 
"They  acquired  such  dexterity  that  when  bathing  they  could 
seize  the  fish  even  in  the  open  water,  attracting  them  by  little 
arts  to  which  the  fish  submitted  as  to  a  kind  of  fascination." 
Almost  every  country-bred  boy  learns  more  or  less  of  such 
field  and  water  craft,  but  in  Agassiz  it  was  the  foundation  of  a 
career.  Like  many  another  bright  and  nimble-fingered  lad, 
too,  he  imitated  the  arts  of  the  mechanics  who  came  to  his 
father's  house  from  time  to  time,  "  and  when  a  very  little  fel- 
low, he  could  cut  and  put  together  a  well-fitting  pair  of  shoes 
for  his  sisters'  dolls,  was  no  bad  tailor,  and  could  make  a  min- 
iature barrel  that  was  perfectly  water-tight.  He  remembered 
these  trivial  facts  as  a  valuable  part  of  his  incidental  educa- 
tion. He  said  he  owed  much  of  his  dexterity  in  manipulation 

475 


476 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


to  the  training  of  eye  and  hand  gained  in  these  childish 
plays." 

When  Louis  was  ten  years  old  he  was  sent  to  a  school  for 
boys  at  Bienne.  Up  to  this  time  his  parents  had  been  his  only 
teachers ;  and  he  could  not  have  had  better.  Wherever  his 
father  was  settled  as  pastor  his  influence  was  felt  hardly  less  in 
the  schools  than  in  the  pulpit.  At  Bienne  nine  hours  of  school 
work  a  day  were  required — an  amount  that  would  not  be  borne 
in  American  schools,  and  that  doubtless  goes  far  to  explain  the 
superior  attainments  that  Americans  recognise  in  men  educated 
in  Europe.  Yet  whether  or  not  from  some  difference  in  method, 
or  climate,  or  mode  of  life,  or  temperament,  the  boys  were 
healthy  and  happy  under  these  exactions.  After  four  years  at 
this  school  the  time  came  when  it  was  intended  that  Louis 
should  enter  the  business  house  of  an  uncle  at  Neuchatel,  as 
his  parents  did  not  feel  able  to  give  him  further  educational 
advantages.  But  the  boy  had  formed  the  desire  to  become  a 
man  of  letters  and  begged  for  at  least  two  years  in  the  academy 
at  Lausanne.  His  request,  which  was  supported  by  his  former 
teachers,  was  granted.  At  Lausanne  his  taste  for  everything 
bearing  upon  the  study  of  Nature  became  more  pronounced. 
His  mother's  brother,  Dr.  Mathias  Mayor,  who  was  a  promi- 
nent physician  in  Lausanne,  soon  perceived  the  bent  of  the 
youth's  mind,  and  advised  that  his  nephew  be  allowed  to  study 
medicine  as  the  calling  probably  most  congenial  to  him.  His 
parents  were  persuaded  to  this  view,  and  Louis  at  seventeen 
years  of  age  entered  the  medical  school  of  Zurich.  His  brother 
Auguste,  who  had  entered  the  school  at  Bienne  a  year  later 
than  Louis,  was  still  his  constant  companion.  Many  an  hour 
did  the  young  students  spend  in  copying  books  which  their 
scanty  means  would  not  permit  them  to  buy.  This  was  largely 
a  labour  of  love  on  the  part  of  the  younger  brother,  for  the 
books  were  more  needed  in  Louis's  studies  than  in  his. 

After  two  years  at  Zurich  Louis  went,  early  in  1826,  to  the 
University  of  Heidelberg,  while  Auguste  entered  upon  com- 
mercial life  in  Neuchatel.  At  the  university  the  letters  that 
Louis  brought  from  former  instructors,  together  with  his  dili- 
gence and  winning  disposition,  quickly  gained  the  interest  of 
his  professors.  At  the  suggestion  of  one  of  them  he  made  the 
acquaintance  of  a  fellow-student,  Alexander  Braun,  who  was 
as  enthusiastic  a  botanist  as  Agassiz  was  a  zoologist.  They 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  477 

became  fast  friends  for  life.  Karl  Schimper  was  another 
friend  whom  he  found  at  Heidelberg.  As  the  distance  made 
it  too  expensive  for  Agassiz  to  spend  his  vacations  with 
his  parents,  he  soon  became  accustomed  to  pass  them  at  the 
home  of  Braun  at  Carlsruhe.  Braun's  father  was  much  devoted 
to  science,  having  a  rich  collection  of  minerals,  and  his  house 
afforded  abundant  facilities  for  the  studies  of  his  sons  and 
their  young  friends.  Here  young  Braun  brought  Agassiz  in 
the  spring  of  1827  to  recover  from  an  attack  of  typhus  fever. 
And  when  the  patient  was  advised  to  recruit  in  his  native  air, 
Braun  accompanied  him  all  the  way  to  his  own  home.  Braun 
having  become  convinced  that  there  were  especially  good  facili- 
ties for  scientific  study  at  Munich  proposed  that  Agassiz  accom- 
pany him  there  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year.  To  this  the  latter 
readily  assented,  and  Schimper  soon  followed  them.  Here, 
under  Martius,  Oken,  Dollinger,  and  Schelling,  he  devoted 
himself  eagerly  to  the  pursuit  of  natural  history,  though  still 
as  at  Heidelberg  keeping  up  his  medical  studies  out  of  defer- 
ence to  the  wishes  of  his  parents.  At  that  time  Martius  was 
publishing  his  great  work  on  the  Natural  History  of  Brazil, 
and  Spix,  who  was  editing  the  zoological  portion,  having  re- 
cently died,  Martius  intrusted  to  Agassiz  the  description  of  the 
fishes.  In  this  work,  which  was  admirably  well  done,  Agassiz 
characterized  nine  genera,  embracing  forty-two  species  new  to 
science. 

For  some  time  Agassiz  had  contemplated  a  monograph  on 
the  Fresh-water  Fishes  of  Central  Europe,  but  pecuniary  em- 
barrassment rendered  this  impossible,  till  a  bookseller  by  the 
name  of  Cotta,  to  whom  Agassiz  showed  the  material  he  had 
collected,  furnished  him  the  means  necessary  for  its  completion. 
Meanwhile  he  studied  and  obtained  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Philosophy,  and  soon  after  obtained  that  of  Doctor  of  Medicine. 
After  his  examination,  Agassiz  went  to  Vienna,  and  applied 
himself  closely  to  the  study  of  actual  and  fossil  ichthyology.  He 
then  spent  a  year  at  home  continuing  his  studies  and  practising 
medicine,  after  which,  in  the  fall  of  1831,  he  went  to  Paris,  where 
he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Cu  vier  and  Humboldt,  both  of  whom 
warmly  welcomed  this  expert  young  naturalist.  Here  he  lived 
on  the  most  intimate  terms  with  Cuvier  for  some  months,  till 
the  death  of  that  naturalist,  when  he  returned  to  Switzerland 
and  established  himself  at  Neuchatel,  where  he  was  appointed 


478  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

Professor  of  Natural  History.  This  position  he  held  till  his 
departure  for  America,  although  in  the  meantime  invited  to 
Geneva  and  Lausanne. 

Through  the  aid  and  influence  of  Humboldt,  between  whom 
and  Agassiz  there  existed  the  warmest  friendship,  he  was  en- 
abled to  begin  the  publication  of  his  Poissons  Fossiles,  a  work 
evincing  such  careful  and  profound  research,  and  such  a  won- 
derful power  of  generalization,  as  to  obtain  for  him  a  place 
among  the  very  first  naturalists  of  the  day.  Cuvier,  who  had 
intended  to  prepare  such  a  work,  generously  abandoned  his 
plan  after  perceiving  his  young  friend's  capability,  and  gave 
Agassiz  the  use  of  his  material.  This  work,  which  appeared  in 
parts,  between  the  years  1833  and  1845,  comprises  five  volumes, 
of  about  1,700  quarto  pages,  with  an  atlas  of  400  folio  plates, 
and  contains  descriptions  of  nearly  a  thousand  species  of  fossil 
fishes.  Aside  from  the  great  number  of  species,  genera,  and 
families  established,  Agassiz  adopted  an  entirely  new  system  of 
classification.  In  the  classification  proposed  by  Cuvier,  fishes 
were  divided  into  two  orders,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
skeleton,  viz.,  cartilaginous  and  osseous.  Agassiz — looking 
upon  the  external  covering  of  the  animal  as  a  reflex  of  the 
connection  existing  between  the  being  and  its  surroundings, 
bearing  the  imprint  of  all  the  peculiarities  of  its  existence,  and 
consequently  of  its  organization— deemed  that  the  true  princi- 
ple of  the  classification  of  fishes  was  to  be  found  in  the  scales. 
In  view  of  this  he  proposed  a  division  of  the  families  of  fishes 
into  four  orders,  viz.,  Placoids,  in  which  the  scales  are  rep- 
resented by  plates  of  enamel,  as  in  the  sharks;  Ganoids,  in 
which  the  scales  consist  of  angular  bony  plates  covered  with  a 
thick  layer  of  ^enamel,  as  in  the  garpikes ;  Ctenoids,  or  fishes 
with  true  scales,  in  which  the  posterior  edges  of  the  laminae 
are  toothed ;  and  Cycloids,  in  which  the  scales  are  composed  of 
simple  laminae  with  smooth  posterior  edges.  Agassiz  found 
that  the  study  of  fossil  fishes  exhibits  a  remarkable  parallelism 
between  the  development  of  the  individual  and  that  of  the  class 
in  geologic  time.  During  part  of  the  embryonic  life  of  fishes, 
and  even  in  some  adult  forms,  the  dorsal  cord  exists  as  a  simple 
gelatinous  cylinder,  surrounded  by  a  fibrous  sheath,  in  which, 
after  a  time,  there  is  found  a  cartilaginous  and  then  an  osseous 
deposit,  which  goes  to  form  the  vertebrae,  the  ossification  tak- 
ing place  first  in  the  apophyses.  This  embyronic  character 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  479 

Agassiz  found  to  be  peculiar  to  the  fossil  fishes  of  the  earlier 
geologic  ages.  There  is  no  trace  of  a  vetebra,  but  the  apophy- 
ses,  usually  ossified,  rest  directly  on  the  spinal  cord. 

In  October,  1833,  Agassiz  married  Cecile,  the  sister  of. his 
life-long  friend  Alexander  Braun.  With  rare  artistic  talent  she 
had  greatly  aided  her  brother  by  making  drawings  of  botanic- 
al objects,  and  she  now  performed  a  similar  service  for  her 
husband. 

The  appearance  of  the  first  part  of  his  Fossil  Fishes  had 
won  for  Agassiz  the  Wollaston  prize  of  the  Geological  Society 
of  London.  In  1834,  and  again  in  1835,  Agassiz  visited  Eng- 
land and  received  the  kindest  attentions  from  Buckland,  Sedg- 
wick,  Murchison,  Lyell,  and  others,  and  much  aid  in  his  re- 
searches. 

Agassiz  next  turned  his  attention  to  the  study  of  Mollusca 
and  Echinoderms,  and  in  1836  published  a  prodromus  of  the 
Echinoderms,  and  in  1837  a  treatise  on  the  fossil  Echinoderms 
of  Switzerland.  In  1839  he  began  a  more  elaborate  work,  en- 
titled Monographic*  £  Echinodermes  vivants  et  fossiles,  a  most 
important  contribution  to  modern  zoology.  This  work  com- 
prises five  parts :  the  first  and  second,  on  the  Salenies  and 
Scutella,  by  Agassiz ;  the  third  and  fourth,  on  the  Galerites 
and  Dysaster,  by  Desor ;  and  the  fifth,  Anatomic  du  genre  Echi- 
nus, by  Valentin.  While  he  was  publishing  his  work  on  the 
Echinoderms,  this  indefatigable  naturalist  also  described  and 
figured  a  large  collection  of  fossil  shells  from  the  Oolite  and 
Cretaceous  formations,  in  a  work  entitled  Etudes  critiques  sur 
les  Mollusques  du  Jura  et  de  la  Craie,  besides  issuing  an  anno- 
tated German  translation  of  Bucklarid's  Geology,  and  French 
and  German  translations  of  Sowerby's  Mineral  Conchology. 

Notwithstanding  the  immense  amount  of  work  on  his  hands, 
Agassiz  found  time  to  prosecute  his  investigation  upon  the 
fresh-water  fishes  of  Europe.  The  first  part  of  his  work  upon 
them,  issued  in  1839,  is  devoted  to  the  genera  Salmo  and  Thy- 
mallus.  The  second  part,  which  did  not  appear  till  1842,  con- 
sists of  a  folio  of  plates  and  a  volume  of  text  on  the  Embry- 
ology of  the  Salmons,  by  Carl  Vogt,  whom  Agassiz  had  associ- 
ated with  him  in  his  work.  This  excellent  treatise  was  never 
completed;  Agassiz's  departure  for  the  United  States  shortly 
after,  and  his  increasing  responsibilities,  prevented  the  perfect- 
ing of  his  original  plan. 


480  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

In  1842  Agassiz  began  the  publication  of  his  Nomenclator  Zo- 
ologicus,  an  alphabetical  list  of  every  genus,  with  the  name  of 
the  author,  the  work  in  which  it  originally  appeared,  the  deriva- 
tion of  the  name,  and  the  family  to  which  the  genus  belongs ; 
the  list  embracing  upward  of  seventeen  thousand  names.  In 
the  introduction  the  author  discusses  at  length  the  rules  pro- 
posed by  the  British  Association  and  those  of  the  British  Com- 
mittee, in  regard  to  assigning  and  changing  the  names  of  genera 
and  species,  the  settlement  of  priority,  the  proper  terminations 
of  zoological  names,  and  other  like  matters. 

The  Fossil  Fishes  was  now  approaching  completion,  but,  in 
consequence  of  additional  material,  Agassiz  determined  to  pub- 
lish a  supplement;  and  accordingly  there  appeared,  in  1844, 
the  Fossil  Fishes  of  the  Old  Red  Sandstone.  It  was  accom- 
panied by  an  atlas  of  thirty-nine  folio  plates  illustrative  of  the 
seventy-six  species  described. 

Of  all  Agassiz's  investigations,  perhaps  none  made  his  name 
more  popularly  known  than  his  studies  on  glaciers — studies 
which  were  pursued  through  a  long  course  of  years,  and  con- 
ducted with  the  same  painstaking  care  that  had  heretofore 
characterized  all  his  labours. 

About  the  year  1834,  M.  Charpentier  advanced  the  theory 
that  the  erratic  blocks,  and  certain  dikes  of  peculiar  shape 
found  in  the  Alpine  regions,  were  the  result  of  the  action  of 
former  glaciers  descending  from  the  Alps  and  reaching  even 
the  upper  portions  of  the  Jura.  This  theory  Agassiz  deemed 
improbable,  till,  having  visited  Charpentier  and  investigated 
the  phenomena,  he  not  only  became  convinced  of  the  correct- 
ness of  Charpentier's  views,  but  deduced  from  these  and  other 
phenomena  a  theory  which,  at  the  time  (1837),  was  startlingly 
novel.  It  was  that,  previous  to  the  elevation  of  the  Alps,  the 
globe  experienced  a  very  great  reduction  of  temperature,  and 
that  the  appearance  of  those  mountains  found  the  surface  of 
the  globe,  from  the  north  pole  to  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  cov- 
ered with  an  immense  sheet  of  ice.  An  elevation  of  tempera- 
ture, consequent  upon  the  upheaval  of  the  Alps,  caused  this  ice 
slowly  to  disappear,  remaining  longest  in  the  valleys,  where  it 
gradually  retreated  to  its  present  limits,  leaving  behind  it,  as  a 
record,  the  peculiar  phenomena  which  have  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  so  many  observers. 

Of  course  a  theory  so  novel  at  once  raised  a  storm  of  oppo- 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE  AGASSIZ.  481 

sition,  and  it  became  necessary  for  Agassiz,  if  he  would  prove 
the  correctness  of  his  views,  to  make  the  most  careful  and 
thorough  investigations  on  living  glaciers.  For  this  purpose 
Agassiz,  in  company  with  Desor  and  several  others,  made  visits 
in  1838  and  1839  to  the  glaciers  of  Mont  Blanc  and  the  Bernese 
Oberland,  and  in  1840  established  himself  for  the  summer  on 
the  glacier  of  the  Aar.  That  year  he  published  his  Etudes  sur 
les  Glaciers,  giving  the  results  of  his  investigations  up  to  that 
time.  He  also  visited  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland,  and 
studied  the  evidences  of  ice  action  in  those  countries.  He  per- 
suaded Arnold  Guyot,  who  had  been  his  friend  from  boyhood, 
to  join  him  in  this  work,  and  after  their  first  season,  1838,  divided 
the  work  with  him  and  Desor. 

But  his  labours  were  not  finished.  Doubting  the  sufficiency 
of  the  theory  of  De  Saussure — that  the  cause  of  the  motion  of 
the  glacier  depends  upon  gravity — and  inclined  to  accept  the 
dilatation  theory  of  Scheuchzer,  it  became  necessary  for  him  to 
examine  with  care  the  structure,  form,  distribution,  and  rate  of 
motion  of  the  glacier.  Thus  it  was  that,  in  1841,  he  began  a 
second  series  of  observations  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
these  points.  He  chose,  for  the  theatre  of  his  investigations, 
the  glacier  of  the  Aar,  which,  by  its  extent  and  accessibility, 
promised  the  most  favourable  results.  In  1845  he  had  com- 
pleted his  work,  and  in  1847  appeared  his  Systeme  Gladaire, 
which  embodied  the  final  results  of  his  researches  upon  the 
structure  of  glaciers,  and  their  effects  upon  the  soil.  The  re- 
sults at  which  he  arrived  constitute  the  chief  part  of  the  theory 
of  glaciers  as  accepted  to-day,  accounting  for  their  formation, 
their  stratification,  their  blue  bands,  their  movement,  their 
moraines,  the  grooved  or  polished  surfaces  of  the  rocks  over 
which  they  pass,  and  the  erratic  blocks  left  where  old  glaciers 
have  been.  Some  important  additions  have  been  made  by 
Tyndall,  and  there  are  a  few  points  on  which  these  two  investi- 
gators disagreed. 

Charles  Bonaparte,  Prince  of  Canino,  had  for  several  years 
been  planning  a  scientific  journey  in  the  United  States,  and 
had  invited  Agassiz  to  accompany  him.  The  latter  had  agreed 
to  the  proposal,  and,  in  order  to  prolong  his  stay,  obtained, 
through  the  influence  of  Humboldt,  a  grant  of  15,000  francs 
from  the  King  of  Prussia.  The  Prince'  was  obliged  to  give  up 
the  journey  and  Agassiz  went  without  him.  For  the  last  few 


482  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

months  before  his  departure  Agassiz  was  busily  engaged  in 
completing  several  scientific  undertakings  that  he  had  in  hand. 
Then,  leaving  his  son  Alexander  at  school  at  Neuchatel  and  his 
wife,  with  their  daughters,  in  the  care  of  her  brother,  at  Carls- 
ruhe,  he  sailed  for  the  United  States  in  September,  1846. 

Agassiz  was  thirty-nine  years  of  age  when  he  came  to  the 
land  that  was  to  be  his  home  for  the  rest  of  his  life.  His  repu- 
tation had  preceded  him,  and  he  was  most  cordially  received 
by  American  scientists.  Before  leaving  Europe  he  had  made 
through  Lyell  an  engagement  to  deliver  at  the  Lowell  Insti- 
tute, Boston,  a  course  of  lectures  on  The  Plan  of  Creation, 
especially  in  the  Animal  Kingdom.  His  audiences  were  so  well 
pleased  that  after  the  completion  of  this  course  he  undertook 
one  on  glaciers,  also  in  Boston,  which  was  highly  successful.  The 
next  summer  he  took  a  small  house  at  East  Boston  and  gath- 
ered around  him  a  corps  of  naturalists  and  illustrators,  among 
them  being  Count  Frangois  de  Pourtales,  who  had  accompanied 
him  to  this  country,  E.  Desor,  and  Jaques  Burkhardt.  He  also 
made  journeys  to  visit  men  of  science  or  to  explore  interest- 
ing localities,  and  the  following  winter  lectured  in  Boston  and 
other  cities.  Before  this  winter  was  over,  in  February,  1848, 
came  the  proclamation  of  the  French  republic,  and  then  all 
Europe  was  in  turmoil.  The  canton  of  Neuchatel  had  been  a 
dependency  of  Prussia,  which  explains  why  Agassiz  was  in  the 
pay  of  the  Prussian  king.  The  republican  party  at  once  rose 
up  in  Neuchatel  and  carried  the  canton  into  the  Swiss  confed- 
eracy. As  a  consequence,  Agassiz  was  honourably  discharged 
from  his  commission.  The  Lawrence  Scientific  School  was 
being  organized  about  this  time  in  connection  with  Harvard 
College.  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence,  its  founder,  offered  the  chair 
of  Natural  History  in  this  school  to  Agassiz,  who  accepted  it, 
and  held  the  position  till  his  death. 

The  Swiss  naturalist  now  took  up  his  abode  in  Cambridge, 
and  became  a  leading  factor  in  the  scientific  development  of 
the  Western  republic.  He  soon  had  the  pleasure  of  welcoming 
to  the  shores  of  America  Guyot  and  others  of  his  old  friends, 
who  were  dislodged  by  the  overturn  in  Europe.  The  death  of 
his  wife  soon  broke  another  of  his  own  ties  to  the  Old  World. 

Delightful  facilities  for  research  were  afforded  to  Agassiz  in 
the  course  of  his  first  summer  in  America  by  excursions  on  the 
United  States  Coast  Survey  steamer  Bibb,  then  employed  in 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  483 

the  survey  of  Massachusetts  Bay.  From  this  time  to  the  end 
of  his  life,  under  Superintendents  Bache  and  Pierce,  courtesies 
were  frequently  extended  to  him  by  the  Survey,  to  the  specific 
benefit  of  the  latter's  work  as  well  as  of  science  in  general. 

Agassiz  had  not  been  two  years  in  this  country  before  he 
began  publishing  in  English.  The  first  part  of  Principles  of 
Zoology,  by  L.  Agassiz  and  A.  A.  Gould,  appeared  in  1848. 
Several  editions  were  disposed  of,  mainly  for  school  use,  but 
its  sale  was  checked  by  the  lack  of  a  concluding  part,  which 
was  never  issued.  The  same  year,  in  connection  with  H.  E. 
Strickland,  he  began  the  publication  of  a  Bibliographia  Zoolo- 
gies, et  Geologic.  This  work,  which  comprises  a  list  of  all  the 
periodicals  devoted  to  zoology  and  geology,  and  an  alphabet- 
ical list  of  authors  and  their  works  in  the  same  departments, 
was  completed  in  four  volumes,  the  fourth  being  published 
in  1854. 

Agassiz's  studies  on  the  glaciers  of  Switzerland  led  him  to 
expect  to  find  in  the  United  States  many  traces  of  former  ice 
action.  Nor  was  he  disappointed.  He  explored  the  country 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  from  the  Great  Lakes 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  everywhere,  north  of  the  thirty-fifth 
parallel  of  latitude,  found  evidences  of  glacial  action,  in  erratic 
blocks,  polished  and  striated  rock  surfaces,  and  terminal  mo- 
raines. Naturally  this  served  to  confirm  his  belief  in  the  uni- 
versality of  the  ice  period ;  and,  upon  his  departure  for  Brazil, 
in  1865,  he  announced  his  confident  expectation  of  finding 
records  of  the  former  existence  of  glaciers  in  that  country; 
for  he  believed  that  not  only  most  of  the  Northern,  but  also 
most  of  the  Southern  Hemisphere  was,  during  the  glacial 
epoch,  encased  in  ice.  The  evidences  of  glacial  action  in  the 
United  States  are  fully  discussed  by  Agassiz  in  his  Lake  Su- 
perior, a  work  on  the  physical  character,  vegetation,  and  ani- 
mals, of  Lake  Superior,  compared  with  those  of  other  and  simi- 
lar regions. 

Agassiz  was  a  firm  believer  in  the  diversity  of  origin  of  the 
human  race,  and  his  views  on  this  point  are  ably  presented  in 
the  Christian  Examiner  for  July,  1850,  and  in  an  introduction 
to  Nott  and  Gliddon's  Types  of  Mankind.  The  geographical 
distribution  of  animals  shows,  he  maintained,  that  distinct  zoo- 
logical provinces  are  each  characterized  by  peculiar  fauna,  and 
that  therefore  animals  did  not  originate  from  a  common  centre 


484  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

nor  from  a  single  pair.  The  races  of  men,  in  their  natural  dis- 
tribution, cover  the  same  ground  as  the  zoological  provinces, 
and  he  believes  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  these 
races  originally  appeared  as  nations  in  the  regions  they  now 
occupy. 

In  the  spring  of  1850  Agassiz  married  Elizabeth  Cabot  Gary, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Graves  Gary,  of  Boston.  This  marriage 
bound  him  still  more  closely  to  America,  and  enabled  him  to 
give  his  children  a  home  here.  He  accordingly  sent  for  his 
daughters,  his  son,  then  thirteen  years  old,  having  joined  him 
the  summer  before. 

Being  commissioned  by  Mr.  Bache,  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Coast  Survey,  to  investigate  the  nature  of  the  Florida 
keys  and  reefs,  and  the  channels  dividing  them,  as  also  their 
relation  to  the  hummocks  and  everglades  of  the  mainland,  he 
spent  about  two  months  in  the  winter  of  i85o-*5i  in  this  work. 
From  his  report  the  Coast  Survey  derived  much  valuable  infor- 
mation concerning  the  maintenance  of  channels,  and  the  plac- 
ing of  signals,  and  of  foundations  for  lighthouses.  In  the  fol- 
lowing winter  he  entered  upon  an  appointment  as  professor  at 
the  Medical  College  in  Charleston,  S.  C.  His  course  of  lectures 
there  occupied  the  winter  months — between  his  autumn  and 
spring  courses  in  Cambridge — and  relieved  him  from  the  neces- 
sity of  travelling  about  to  lecture  in  different  cities,  which  had 
already  somewhat  taxed  his  health.  It  was  at  the  end  of  his 
first  winter  in  Charleston  that  news  came  of  the  award  of  the 
Cuvierian  prize  to  him  for  his  Fossil  Fishes.  During  part  of 
his  second  winter  in  Charleston  he  was  dangerously  sick  with 
a  fever,  and  in  the  following  spring  he  resigned  his  professor- 
ship. In  the  winter  of  i854-*55  he  resumed  his  public  lectures, 
but  it  became  evident  in  the  spring  that  he  must  give  up  this 
practice. 

Some  other  means  of  supplementing  his  scanty  salary  must 
be  found,  and  at  this  juncture  his  wife  and  daughters  proposed 
to  open  a  girls'  school.  Agassiz  not  only  approved  the  plan, 
but  entered  into  it  himself,  and  was  an  important  factor  in  the 
splendid  success  that  it  enjoyed  for  its  eight  years  of  existence. 
The  adverse  influence  of  the  civil  war,  added  to  the  fact  that 
the  income  from  it  was  no  longer  needed,  brought  it  to  a  close 
in  1863. 

Ever  since  his  arrival  in  America,  Agassiz  had  been  collect- 


JEAN  LOUIS  RODOLPHE  AGASSIZ.  485 

ing  material  for  a  series  of  Contributions  to  the  Natural  His- 
tory of  the  United  States.  In  1857  appeared  two  volumes  of 
these  contributions ;  the  first  containing  an  Essay  on  Classifi- 
cation and  the  history  of  the  North  American  Testudinata ; 
the  second  on  the  Embryology  of  the  Turtle,  and  was  illustrated 
with  thirty-four  plates. 

In  the  essay  on  Classification,  Agassiz  affirms  that  Nature  is 
but  the  expression  of  the  thought  of  the  Creator,  and  that  a 
true  classification  will  be  found  to  be  but  an  unfolding  of  the 
plan  of  creation,  as  expressed  in  living  realities ;  that  these  re- 
alities do  not  exist  in  consequence  of  the  continued  agency  of 
physical  causes,  but  appear  successively  by  the  immediate  in- 
tervention of  the  Creator.  We  find  in  Nature  a  progressive 
series,  from  lower  to  higher  forms ;  but  it  is  not  a  uniform 
progress  for  the  animal  kingdom  as  a  whole;  neither  is  it 
a  linear  progress  for  the  branches  or  classes,  but  a  progress 
in  which  each  type  has  usually  been  introduced  by  the  crea- 
tion of  species  belonging  to  one  of  its  higher  groups,  for  the 
earliest  representatives  of  a  class  do  not  always  seem  to  be 
the  lowest.  Yet,  notwithstanding  these  downward  steps,  the 
progress  has  continually  tended  toward  the  production  of 
higher  and  higher  types,  culminating  at  last  in  Man. 

The  third  volume  of  the  Contributions  appeared  in  1860, 
and  was  devoted  to  the  class  of  Acalephce,  the  author  treating 
specially  of  the  order  Ctenophorcz.  The  fourth  volume,  issued 
in  1862,  concluded  the  Acalepha.  The  plan  of  the  work  had 
contemplated  ten  volumes,  but  only  these  four  were  com- 
pleted in  his  lifetime.  A  fifth  volume  on  North  American  star- 
fishes appeared  after  his  death. 

From  his  early  student  days  Agassiz's  collections  were  a 
source  of  care  and  solicitude  to  him.  In  a  letter  written  from 
Munich,  he  values  his  accumulations  at  two  hundred  louis,  near 
one  thousand  dollars,  and  calls  this  a  low  estimate.  His  grand- 
father gave  them  houseroom  for  a  while,  and  they,  with  later 
additions,  were  finally  disposed  of  to  the  Lyceum  of  Neuchatel 
when  Agassiz  entered  upon  his  professorship  there.  Starting 
anew  after  he  came  to  America,  he  gathered  specimens  more 
rapidly  than  before.  During  his  first  years  at  Cambridge  an 
old  boathouse  on  the  bank  of  the  Charles  River  served  as  a 
storehouse  for  them.  By  1850  they  had  acquired  such  volume 
as  to  make  a  severe  drain  upon  his  income  merely  to  preserve 


486  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

them  from  destruction.  In  that  year  a  wooden  building  on 
the  college  grounds  was  provided  for  their  storage,  and  four 
hundred  dollars  was  allowed  him  as  an  annual  grant  toward 
the  expense  of  keeping  them.  Soon  after  this  certain  friends 
subscribed  twelve  thousand  dollars  to  purchase  his  collections, 
thus  relieving  him  and  securing  the  precious  material  for  Cam- 
bridge permanently — provided  fire  did  not  seize  upon  their 
frail  shelter  and  the  jars  of  alcohol  in  which  many  of  the  speci- 
mens were  preserved,  involving  all  in  ruin. 

The  creation  of  a  great  and  systematically  arranged  zoo- 
logical museum  had  been  the  dream  of  Agassiz's  life.  He 
would  have  its  collections  so  arranged  as  to  show  the  relation 
of  each  part  of  the  animal  kingdom  to  all  others,  so  that  it 
might  be  a  powerful  means  for  training  teachers  of  science  in 
the  common  schools,  for  illuminating  the  text-books  of  their 
pupils,  and  for  educating  the  general  public.  He  would  have, 
also,  in  connection  with  it,  laboratories  for  special  students, 
with  abundance  of  duplicate  specimens,  and  all  the  appliances 
needed  for  their  studies  and  researches.  Fortunately,  he  was 
able,  in  great  measure,  to  attain  his  ideal.  In  1858  Mr.  Francis 
C.  Gray,  to  whom  he  had  explained  his  purpose,  died,  leaving 
by  his  will  fifty  thousand  dollars  for  the  establishment  of  a 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology.  A  grant  of  lands  worth  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  was  obtained  from  the  Legislature  of 
Massachusetts,  a  private  subscription  of  over  seventy  thousand 
dollars  was  raised,  and  Harvard  College  gave  an  ample  site 
for  a  building.  By  these  events  Agassiz's  vacation  trip  to 
Europe  in  the  summer  that  followed  them  was  made  doubly 
happy. 

The  plan  of  the  museum  building  provided  for  a  main  struc- 
ture three  hundred  and  sixty-four  feet  long,  with  wings  two  hun- 
dred and  five  feet  long,  the  whole  forming  three  sides  of  a 
square.  A  section  of  the  north  wing,  about  eighty  feet  in 
length,  was  built  in  i859-'6o,  being  sufficient  for  the  time  being. 
One  addition  was  made  before  Agassiz's  death,  and  since  then 
the  original  plan  has  been  filled  out  by  successive  additions. 
As  soon  as  the  first  portion  was  ready  he  set  about  installing 
the  collections  in  it.  Its  laboratories  were  soon  open  to  stu- 
dents, and  from  this  time  on  his  lectures,  were  given  there. 
These  pursuits,  with  writing,  now  occupied  him  during  the  col- 
lege year  at  Cambridge.  Summers  he  spent  at  Nahant,  a  favour- 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  487 

ite  resort  on  a  rocky  peninsula  north  of  Boston  Harbour,  where 
his  father-in-law,  Mr.  Gary,  had  given  him  a  cottage  and  labor- 
atory. Here  he  could  study  the  fauna  of  the  seashore  to  ex- 
cellent advantage. 

When  the  civil  war  broke  out  he  worked  on  in  full  confi- 
dence that  the  country  would  weather  the  storm,  and  testified 
to  his  faith  by  becoming  naturalized  in  the  darkest  hour  of  the 
struggle.  He  deeply  felt  the  misrepresentations  of  the  North 
that  appeared  in  British  newspapers,  and  in  his  letters  to  Brit- 
ish men  of  science  took  pains  to  convey  correct  ideas  of  Ameri- 
can affairs.  Early  in  this  period  he  was  enabled  to  begin  issu- 
ing the  illustrated  bulletin  of  the  museum,  by  a  grant  of  ten 
thousand  dollars  from  the  Massachusetts  Legislature.  While 
exerting  himself  to  the  utmost  to  advance  his  own  department, 
Agassiz  was  deeply  interested  in  the  welfare  of  Harvard  as  a 
whole,  and  faithfully  performed  his  duty  as  a  member  of  the 
academic  council  of  the  university. 

In  the  spring  of  1865,  feeling  the  need  of  complete  change 
of  scene,  and  a  release  from  indoor  occupations,  Prof.  Agassiz 
planned  a  trip  with  his  wife  to  Brazil.  Meeting  Mr.  Nathaniel 
Thayer,  of  Boston,  one  day,  the  latter  engaged  him  in  a  con- 
versation about  the  proposed  trip,  and  in  the  course  of  it 
offered  to  pay  the  expenses  of  half  a  dozen  scientific  assistants. 
The  expedition  was  accordingly  organized  and  was  gone  sixteen 
months.  The  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company  gave  his  party 
free  transport  to  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
equipped  him  with  a  letter  requesting  commanders  of  United 
States  vessels  of  war  in  southern  waters  to  give  him  aid  and 
support,  while  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  with  whom  Agassiz  had 
long  been  in  friendly  relations,  showered  aid  and  attentions 
upon  him.  The  first  three  months  in  Brazil  were  spent  in  Rio 
de  Janeiro  and  vicinity,  the  next  ten  on  the  network  of  Amazo- 
nian waters,  and  finally  two  months  were  devoted  to  excur- 
sions along  the  coast  and  in  the  mountains  near  Ceara  and  Rio. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  his  first  scientific  work  was  on  Bra- 
zilian Fishes,  and  he  now  made  the  fresh-water  fauna  of  Brazil 
one  of  his  two  subjects  of  inquiry.  The  other  was  the  glacial 
history  of  the  southern  America,  which  he  found  as  plainly 
written  as  he  had  expected.  He  brought  home  many  hundreds 
of  species  of  new  fishes  where  less  than  two  hundred  had  been 
known  before.  An  account  of  the  trip  was  written  by  him 


488  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

and  Mrs.  Agassiz  and  published  under  the  title  A  Journey 
in  Brazil. 

In  the  autumn  of  1869  Agassiz's  overtasked  brain  made  an 
unmistakable  demand  for  rest.  He  was  withdrawn  entirely 
from  mental  occupation  for  the  whole  of  the  following  winter, 
and  spent  a  period  of  convalescence  at  Deerfield,  Mass.,  in  the 
next  spring.  Agassiz  was  then  sixty-two  years  old.  He  had  had 
his  periods  of  sickness  before,  but  no  such  peremptory  check 
as  this.  Late  in  1870  he  returned  to  his  work,  and  his  recovery 
of  health  seemed  to  be  so  complete  that  Prof.  Benjamin  Pierce, 
then  Superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  ventured  to  write 
him,  in  the  February  following,  "  I  am  going  to  send  a  new  iron 
surveying  steamer  round  to  California  in  the  course  of  the 
summer.  She  will  probably  start  at  the  end  of  June.  Would 
you  go  in  her  and  do  deep-sea  dredging  all  the  way  round  ? 
If  so,  what  companions  will  you  take?"  Agassiz  went,  taking 
as  companions  Count  de  Pourtales,  who  had  been  associated 
with  him  in  many  such  researches,  Dr.  Franz  Steidachner,  of 
the  museum  staff,  and  Mr.  Blake,  a  student  at  the  museum. 
Mrs.  Agassiz  was  also  of  the  party.  The  steamer  was  the 
Hassler.  Owing  to  various  delays  it  did  not  sail  until  Decem- 
ber 4,  1871.  The  season  and  defects  in  the  vessel's  machinery 
and  equipments  compelled  a  reduction  of  the  contemplated 
operations,  yet  the  trip  was  profitable  and  extremely  pleasant. 
Reaching  San  Francisco  in  August,  1872,  Agassiz  was  back  in 
Cambridge  two  months  later. 

During  his  absence  some  of  his  younger  scientific  associates 
had  formed  an  educational  plan  which  they  felt  sure  needed 
only  Agassiz  to  be  a  success.  This  was  for  a  school  of  natural 
history  at  the  seashore  during  the  summer  months,  in  which 
teachers  from  our  schools  and  colleges  could  make  their  vaca- 
tions serve  both  for  recreation  and  for  study  from  the  open 
book  of  Nature.  Although  no  facilities  or  means  for  the  un- 
dertaking were  in  sight,  Agassiz  entered  heartily  into  the 
scheme.  An  appeal  which  he  made  to  the  Legislature  of  Mas- 
sachusetts in  its  behalf  the  following  spring  was  read  in  a  news- 
paper by  Mr.  John  Anderson,  of  New  York,  who  had  acquired 
wealth  in  the  tobacco  business.  Mr.  Anderson  at  once  offered 
as  a  site  for  the  school  the  island  of  Penikese,  off  the  southern 
shore  of  Massachusetts,  at  the  entrance  of  Buzzard's  Bay,  to- 
gether with  the  furnished  dwelling  and  barn  upon  it.  Scarcely 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  489 

was  this  gift  accepted  when  he  added  an  endowment  of  fifty 
thousand  dollars  for  the  equipment  of  the  school.  Early  in 
July  the  school  was  opened,  and  a  most  profitable  summer  was 
spent  on  the  island  by  the  fifty  or  sixty  persons  there  assem- 
bled. The  resident  professors  besides  Agassiz  were  Burt  G. 
Wilder  and  Alpheus  S.  Packard.  Count  de  Pourtales  was 
there  in  charge  of  the  dredging,  for  which  purpose  Mr.  Charles 
G.  Galloupe  had  given  the  school  a  yacht.  Agassiz's  friend 
from  youth,  Prof.  Guyot,  came  to  deliver  a  course  of  lectures 
and  remained  some  time. 

In  the  fall  Agassiz  returned  to  his  usual  occupations.  The 
care  of  the  summer  school  had  imposed  an  added  strain  upon 
his  long  over-burdened  nervous  system,  and  his  health  was 
now  a  subject  of  anxiety  to  his  friends.  One  day  in  December 
he  went  home  early  from  the  museum,  complaining  of  great 
weariness,  and,  after  an  illness  of  eight  days,  he  peacefully 
passed  away  December  14,  1873.  He  was  buried  at  Mount 
Auburn.  A  boulder  from  the  glacier  of  the  Aar  is  his  monu- 
ment, and  around  it  grow  pine  trees  also  sent  from  Switz- 
erland. 

As  a  naturalist,  Prof.  Agassiz  was  unwearied  in  his  devotion 
to  his  favourite  pursuits.  He  worked  early  and  late,  often 
denying  to  himself  the  most  necessary  rest  and  recreation ;  and 
his  remarkably  strong  constitution  sustained  him  under  a  strain 
that  would  quickly  have  proved  fatal  to  a  man  of  less  vigour. 
His  mind  was  pre-eminently  great ;  gifted  with  a  wonderfully 
retentive  memory,  he  combined  with  it  a  power  of  generaliza- 
tion and  quick  perception  that  places  him  next  to  Cuvier, 
whose  disciple  he  was,  and  whom  he  seemed  to  imitate.  In 
his  methods  of  investigation  he  was  perfectly  honest,  and, 
though  many  might  differ  from  him  in  his  conclusions,  none 
could  deny  the  absolute  integrity  of  his  convictions.  His  in- 
tercourse with  his  fellow-men  was  pervaded  by  his  goodness 
of  heart  and  childlike  simplicity  With  inexperience  he  was 
most  patient  and  painstaking,  never  wearying  in  his  efforts  to 
aid.  Tolerant  of  ignorance  where  associated  with  modesty,  he 
had  but  little  patience  with  arrogance  and  ignorance  combined. 
His  students  will  all  bear  witness  to  the  unvarying  cheerfulness 
and  ready  sympathy^in  him  they  had  learned  to  look  up  to  as 
their  master. 

Agassiz  was  a  great  naturalist,  but  he  was  a  greater  teacher. 
32 


490 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


From  his  student  days,  when  he  and  Braun  and  Schimper  used 
to  expound  to  each  other  what  they  had  learned,  down  to 
the  summer  at  Penikese — his  last  on  earth — he  took  no  less 
pleasure  in  imparting  than  in  acquiring  knowledge.  And 
his  teaching  was  singularly  impressive.  He  made  his  pupils 
not  only  know,  but  understand.  Laboratory  work  and  origi- 
nal research  were  his  chief  educational  appliances  years  be- 
fore other  instructors  had  escaped  from  the  bondage  of  text- 
books. "  If  you  study  Nature  in  books,"  he  said,  "  when  you 
go  out  of  doors  you  can  not  find  her."  This  mode  of  instruc- 
tion, then  so  novel,  often  induced  in  his  students  at  first  a  com- 
ical feeling  of  despair.  "  Observation  and  comparison,"  writes 
Mrs.  Agassiz,*  "being  in  his'opinion  the  intellectual  tools  most 
indispensable  to  the  naturalist,  his  first  lesson  was  one  in 
looking.  He  gave  no  assistance;  he  simply  left  his  student 
with  the  specimen,  telling  him  to  use  his  eyes  diligently  and 
report  upon  what  he  saw.  He  returned  from  time  to  time  to 
inquire  after  the  beginner's  progress,  but  he  never  asked  him  a 
leading  question,  never  pointed  out  a  single  feature  of  the 
structure,  never  prompted  an  inference  or  a  conclusion.  This 
process  lasted  sometimes  for  days,  the  professor  requiring  the 
pupil  not  only  to  distinguish  the  various  parts  of  the  animal, 
but  to  detect  also  the  relation  of  these  details  to  more  general 
typical  features."  Mr.  Samuel  H.  Scudder,  in  his  essay  In  the 
Laboratory  with  Agassiz,  gives  an  amusing  account  of  such  a 
first  lesson,  entirely  devoted  to  a  single  fish. 

Agassiz  never  accepted  the  theory  of  evolution  in  the  ani- 
mal kingdom,  although  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  was  before 
the  world  during  the  last  fourteen  years  of  his  life.  On  this 
account  he  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  a  naturalist  who  fell  be- 
hind the  progress  of  his  age.  Yet,  excepting  Darwin,  no  man  of 
his  time  did  so  much  to  carry  the  science  of  zoology  forward 
as  he.  Agassiz  was  to  Darwin  as  he  who  lays  the  firm,  level 
track  is  to  the  builder  of  the  locomotive.  Without  him  evolu- 
tion might  still  he  butting  against  the  ledges  of  prejudice  or 
floundering  in  the  sloughs  of  vague  knowledge.  Prof.  Joseph 
Le  Conte  says,  "  I  think  it  can  be  shown  that  to  Agassiz,  more 
than  to  any  other  man,  is  due  the  credit  of  having  established 
the  laws  of  succession  of  living  forms  in  the  geological  history 

*  Louis  Agassiz :  his  Life  and  Correspondence,  p.  566. 


JEAN   LOUIS   RODOLPHE   AGASSIZ.  491 

of  the  earth — laws  upon  which  must  rest  any  true  theory  of 
evolution.  Also,  that  to  him,  more  than  to  any  other  man, 
is  due  the  credit  of  having  perfected  the  method  (method  of  com- 
parison) by  the  use  of  which  alone  biological  science  has  ad- 
vanced so  rapidly  in  modern  times."*  He  saw  clearly  that 
the  embryonic  development  of  the  higher  animals  consisted  of 
a  series  of  stages  corresponding  to  an  ascending  scale  of  lower 
animals,  and  he  was  the  first  to  show  that  both  corresponded 
to  the  succession  of  forms  in  geologic  time.  He  also  an- 
nounced the  laws  by  which  the  geological  succession  of  animal 
forms  proceeds — he  refused  only  to  recognise  the  result  that 
must  come  from  the  operation  of  these  principles  and  laws. 
To  his  simply  but  tenaciously  devout  mind  the  derivative  ori- 
gin of  species  could  not  be  true,  for  it  seemed  to  eliminate  the 
Creator. 

*  Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious  Thought,  p.  38. 


ARNOLD   HENRY   GUYOT. 

1807-1884. 

THE  political  disturbances  of  1848,  injurious  as  they  were  to 
Switzerland,  were  a  great  and  direct  gain  to  America,  for  they 
gave  to  this  country  Agassiz,  Guyot,  and  Lesquereux,  for  a  long 
time  eminent  labourers  for  the  advancement  of  American  science 
and  the  diffusion  of  sound  learning  among  the  people.  The 
refuge  which  this  country  has  afforded  to  the  politically,  so- 
cially, or  religiously  oppressed  of  the  Old  World  has  been  abun- 
dantly recompensed  by  the  labours  of  those  who  have  taken 
advantage  of  it,  but  never  more  conspicuously  than  in  the 
above  instances. 

Much  light  is  thrown  upon  the  character  of  Prof.  Guyot  by 
certain  facts  of  his  descent.  The  Guyot  family  became  Prot- 
estants through  the  preaching  of  the  French  reformer  Farel,  a 
contemporary  of  Luther,  and,  at  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  was  one  of  sixty  families  that  betook  themselves  from 
Dauphiny  into  the  principality  of  Neuchatel  and  Valangin. 
From  such  conscientious  and  high-minded  stock  have  the 
makers  of  the  American  republic  been  largely  drawn. 

Arnold  Henry  Guyot  was  born  at  Boudevilliers,  near  Neu- 
chatel, September  28,  1807,  being  one  of  twelve  children,  and  was 
named  after  the  Swiss  patriot  Arnold  von  Winkelreid.  He  died 
at  Princeton,  N.  J.,  February  8,  1884.  Young  Guyot's  father, 
David  Pierre,  has  been  described  as  a  man  of  "prompt  intelli- 
gence and  perfect  integrity,"  and  his  mother  as  "  a  lady  of 
great  personal  beauty  and  rare  nobility  of  character."  They 
were  married  in  1796,  Madame  Guyot  having  been  Mademoi- 
selle Constance  Favarger,  of  Neuchatel.  About  1818  the 
family  moved  to  Hauterive,  where  M.  Guyot  died  the  follow- 
ing year. 

In  his  memoir  read  before  the  National  Academy  of  Sci- 
ences, Prof.  James  D.  Dana  gives  this  account  of  Guyot's  edu- 


ARNOLD  HENRY  GUYOT. 


ARNOLD   HENRY  GUYOT.  493 

cation,  based  upon  information  obtained  from  Switzerland : 
"  Previous  to  the  year  1818,  and  for  a  while  after,  Guyot  was 
at  school  at  La  Chaux-de-Fonds,  a  noted  village  '  at  the  foot 
of  a  narrow  and  savage  gorge  of  the  Jura,'  three  thousand  and 
seventy  feet  above  the  sea.  In  1821,  being  then  fourteen 
years  of  age,  he  entered  the  College  of  Neuchatel,  where  he 
was  a  classmate  of  Leo  Lesquereux,  the  botanist:  *  Guyot  and 
I,'  says  Lesquereux,  '  were  for  some  years  brothers  in  study, 
working  in  common  and  often  spending  our  vacations  to- 
gether, either  at  Guyot's  home  at  Hauterive,  or  with  my  par- 
ents at  Fleurier;  and  I  owe  much  in  life  to  the  good  influ- 
ences of  this  friendship.'  His  studies  were  classical — Latin, 
Greek,  and  philosophy — arranged  for  preparing  a  boy  for  the 
profession  of  the  law,  medicine,  or  theology,  with  almost  noth- 
ing to  foster  his  love  of  Nature."  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
during  his  school  life  he  was  president  of  the  gymnastic  club, 
and  one  of  the  best  of  the  school  athletes.  His  slight,  wiry 
frame  thus  received  a  training  in  strength  and  endurance 
which  afterward  stood  him  in  good  stead  when  he  undertook 
the  immense  labours  of  glacier  study  in  Switzerland  and  of 
mountain  surveying  in  America. 

In  1825  he  went  to  complete  his  studies  in  Germany, 
attending  successively  the  gymnasia  of  Carlsruhe  and  Stutt- 
gart. At  Carlsruhe  he  resided  with  a  family  named  Braun, 
with  which  several  of  his  relatives  had  long  been  intimate. 
There  he  met  his  countryman  Agassiz,  who,  with  Imhoff  and 
Carl  Schimper,  was  making  a  vacation  visit  to  his  friend,  young 
Alexander  Braun,  the  discoverer  of  phyllotaxy.  This  period 
was  one  of  the  critical  points  in  Guyot's  career.  There  was 
formed  that  close  and  tender  friendship  with  Agassiz  which 
lasted  until  the  latter's  death,  and  found  its  final  expression  in 
the  beautiful  memoir  of  Agassiz  which  Guyot  read  before  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  in  1878.  But  of  still  greater 
importance  was  the  impulse  toward  the  study  of  science 
which  he  received  from  the  enthusiastic  group  of  young  natu- 
ralists with  whom  he  was  thus  brought  into  daily  and  hourly 
contact.  He  says  of  this  period :  "  My  remembrances  of  these 
few  months  of  alternate  work  and  play,  attended  by  so  much 
real  progress,  are  among  the  most  delightful  of  my  early  days. 
...  It  would  be  idle  to  attempt  to  determine  the  measure  of 
mutual  benefit  derived  by  these  young  students  of  Nature 


494  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

from  their  meeting  under  such  favourable  circumstances.  It 
certainly  was  very  great,  and  we  need  no  other  proof  of  the 
strong  impulse  they  all  received  from  it  than  the  new  ardour 
with  which  each  pursued  and  subsequently  performed  his  life- 
work." 

From  Carlsruhe  young  Guyot  went  to  Stuttgart,  and  in 
1827  returned  to  his  home  in  Switzerland.  Becoming  im- 
pressed with  a  sense  of  duty  to  study  for  the  ministry,  he  be- 
gan at  Neuchatel  a  course  leading  in  that  direction.  In  1829 
he  repaired  to  Berlin  in  order  to  complete  his  theological 
studies;  but  an  obstacle  was  thrown  in  his  path  by  an  injury 
to  his  voice,  produced  by  the  severe  climate  of  Berlin,  from 
which  he  never  fully  recovered.  The  love  of  science  was 
strong  within  him,  and  the  new  field  which  the  lectures  of 
Steffens,  Hegel,  and  Ritter  opened  up  to  his  view  decided  him 
to  enter  upon  the  study  of  Nature  as  his  life-work.  Having 
thus  decided,  he  determined  to  lay  his  foundations  broad  and 
deep,  and  with  this  end  in  view  he  attended  lectures  on  nearly 
all  departments  of  natural  science — chemistry,  physics,  meteor- 
ology, zoology,  geology,  and  physical  geography,  alike  re- 
ceived attention,  and  his  subsequent  career  showed  the  great 
wisdom  of  this  thorough  preparation.  In  1835  he  received 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy,  and  went  to  Paris  to  take 
charge  of  the  education  of  the  sons  of  Count  de  Pourtales-Gor- 
gier.  Here  he  resided  more  than  four  years,  occupying  his  leis- 
ure with  scientific  studies  and  extending  them  in  vacation  tours 
taken  with  his  pupils  through  various  European  countries.  He 
also  took  up  the  subject  of  history  under  Michelet,  and,  like 
everything  else  which  he  touched,  made  it  valuable  in  the 
great  pursuit  of  his  life,  the  study  of  earth  and  man. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  Agassiz  came  to  Paris,  enthusiastic 
upon  the  subject  of  glaciers,  and  induced  Guyot  to  turn  his 
attention  in  the  same  direction.  When  the  summer  came  on 
the  latter  went  to  Switzerland  and  began  a  study  on  the  gla- 
ciers of  that  country.  The  rich  results  of  his  summer's  work 
were  told  to  Agassiz,  and  were  presented  in  a  paper  before 
the  Geological  Society  of  France  during  the  session  of  1838, 
at  Porrentuy.  This  paper  is  mentioned  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  society  (Bulletin,  vol.  ix,  p.  407),  but,  owing  to  a  long 
illness  of  the  author  during  the  following  winter,  it  could  not 
be  printed. 


ARNOLD   HENRY   GUYOT.  495 

To  quote  his  own  statement  as  to  what  he  had  then  learned  :  * 
"  The  glacier  of  the  Aar,  on  which  Agassiz  began  two  years 
later  (1840)  his  regular  system  of  observations,  taught  me  the 
law  of  the  moraines.  The  glacier  of  the  Rhone  gave  me  the 
law  of  the  more  rapid  advance  of  the  center  of  the  glacier  and 
that  of  the  formation  of  the  crevasses,  both  transversal  and 
longitudinal.  The  glacier  of  Gries  showed  me  the  laminated 
or  ribboned  (blue  bands)  structure  of  the  ice  deep  down  in  the 
mass  of  the  glacier,  and  the  law  of  the  more  rapid  advance  of 
the  top  over  the  bottom.  On  the  southern  slope  of  Mont 
Blanc,  the  great  glacier  of  La  Brenva,  with  its  twin  rocks,  rising 
like  two  dark  eyes  from  the  middle  of  the  ice  (they  are  indeed 
called  by  the  mountaineers  the  '  eyes  of  the  glacier '),  made 
me  understand  that  the  motion  of  the  glacier  takes  place  by  a 
gradual  displacement  of  its  molecules  under  the  influence  of 
gravity,  giving  it  a  sort  of  plasticity,  and  not  by  simultaneous 
gliding  of  its  whole  mass,  as  believed  by  De  Saussure.  All 
these  laws,  deducted  from  a  first  but  attentive  study  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  glaciers,  were  at  that  time,  excepting  that 
of  the  moraines,  new  for  science." 

Agassiz  was  intensely  interested  by  Guyot's  discoveries, 
and  appears  to  have  gone  the  next  year  and  discovered  the 
same  things.  Then,  with  his  customary  enthusiasm  and  genius 
for  organizing  great  enterprises,  he  proposed  a  joint  research  in 
which  Guyot  was  to  have  the  distribution  of  erratic  rocks  in 
Switzerland  as  his  exclusive  province,  resigning  to  Agassiz  all 
that  concerned  the  structure  and  movement  of  glaciers,  in 
which  the  former  had  made  such  a  brilliant  beginning.  As 
part  of  this  plan,  in  which  Guyot  modestly  accepted  the  place 
assigned  him,  the  Porrentuy  paper  was  to  remain  unpub- 
lished. Two  years  later  arose  the  fierce  controversy  between 
Agassiz  and  Forbes  as  to  priority  in  certain  glacial  discoveries. 
Faithful  to  the  spirit  of  the  above  agreement,  Guyot  took  no 
part  in  this  wordy  war,  allowing  Agassiz  to  use  the  work  of 
both  as  his  own.  The  latter  repulsed  Forbes's  claim  as  to  the 
blue  bands,  and  secured  the  credit  for  Guyot  by  publishing 
that  part  of  Guyot's  paper  describing  them,  and,  in  order  to 
have  the  rest  of  the  paper  as  ammunition  for  future  use,  de- 
posited the  manuscript  in  the  archives  of  the  Society  of  Natural 

*  Memoir  of  Louis  Agassiz. 


496 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


Sciences  at  Neuchatel.  It  was  withdrawn  by  Guyot  when  he 
came  to  America,  and  was  not  printed  in  full  until  1883,  when 
he  acceded  to  the  request  of  the  society  for  permission  to  do 
this.  Throughout  all  these  years  Guyot  never  claimed  the 
honour  due  him,  contenting  himself  with  a  simple  statement  of 
the  facts  after  the  death  of  Agassiz. 

In  1839  Guyot  accepted  a  call  to  the  Academy  of  Neucha- 
tel, where  Agassiz  was  already  settled,  and  there  he  remained 
till  his  removal  to  America  in  1848.  His  chair  was  that  of 
History  and  Physical  Geography,  and  he  regarded  the  years  of 
his  work  there  as  the  period  of  his  greatest  intellectual  ac- 
tivity. During  this  time  he  gave  much  attention  to  his  glacial 
work,  taking  up  the  geological  side  of  the  question,  the  erratic 
blocks  and  ancient  extension  of  the  glaciers,  and  devoting  to 
this  work  ''absolutely  single-handed,  seven  laborious  sum- 
mers, from  1840  to  1847."  This  gigantic  undertaking  was 
brought  to  a  successful  conclusion,  though  the  results  were  but 
partially  published,  inasmuch  as  the  Systeme  Glaciaire,  by 
Agassiz,  Guyot,  and  Desor,  never  went  further  than  the  first 
volume  (Paris,  1847).  Guyot's  collection  of  five  thousand  speci- 
mens chipped  from  erratic  rocks,  illustrating  eleven  erratic 
basins,  now  fills  a  room  in  the  Princeton  Museum,  a  monument 
of  painstaking  labour.  A  duplicate  set  was  deposited  in  the 
Museum  of  the  Academy  of  Neuchatel. 

The  political  disturbances  of  1848  upset  the  plan  for  the 
glacial  publication  as  it  did  many  others.  Guyot  now  followed 
his  friend  Agassiz  to  America,  and  lived  for  some  time  at  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts.  After  he  had  got  settled  in  this  coun- 
try he  brought  over  his  mother,  two  sisters,  a  nephew,  and 
two  nieces.  During  his  first  winter  he  delivered  in  Boston,  in 
the  Lowell  Institute  course,  the  remarkable  series  of  lectures 
afterward  published  in  the  well-known  book  Earth  and  Man. 
They  were  delivered  in  French  and  translated  for  publication 
by  Prof.  Felton.  These  lectures  were  the  starting-point  of  a 
great  reform  in  the  historical  and  geographical  teaching  of 
this  country.  For  six  years  he  was  engaged  by  the  Board  of 
Education  of  Massachusetts  as  a  lecturer  to  the  normal  schools 
on  geography  and  the  methods  of  teaching  it,  and  after  leav- 
ing the  service  of  that  State  he  followed  up  the  work  there 
commenced  by  preparing  a  series  of  geographical  text-books 
and  large  maps.  To  use  the  words  of  a  writer  in  Science  with 


ARNOLD   HENRY  GUYOT.  497 

regard  to  these  books :  "  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  they 
revolutionized  the  methods  of  teaching  geography.  Every 
series  of  geographies  which  has  since  appeared  shows  the  influ- 
ence of  Guyot."  He  threw  aside  the  old  routine  methods,  and 
brought  his  pupil  face  to  face  with  Nature,  showing  the  bear- 
ing of  the  earth's  physical  features  upon  every  department  of 
human  interest.  His  geographical  works  received  the  medal 
of  progress  at  the  Vienna  Exposition  of  1873,  and  a  gold  medal, 
the  highest  award,  at  that  of  Paris,  in  1878. 

Another  pre-eminent  service  which  Guyot  rendered  to  Ameri- 
ca was  the  work  he  did  in  meteorology,  a  science  which  had 
received  very  little  attention  when  he  arrived  in  this  country. 
From  1851  to  1859  he  worked  at  the  preparation  of  the  Meteor- 
ological and  Physical  Tables,  published  by  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitution, and  also  superintended  the  construction  of  accurate 
meteorological  instruments.  In  connection  with  Prof.  Henry 
he  did  much  to  establish  the  system  of  weather  observations 
and  reports  which  has  resulted  in  the  Government  Weather 
Bureau. 

In  1854  Guyot  was  elected  to  the  chair  of  Geology  and 
Physical  Geography  at  Princeton,  a  post  which  he  filled  for  the 
thirty  remaining  years  of  his  life.  Until  compelled  to  cease  by 
the  increasing  infirmities  of  age,  he  devoted  all  his  vacations 
and  spare  time  to  his  favourite  investigations,  making  elaborate 
and  careful  examinations  of  the  mountains  from  New  England 
to  South  Carolina.  This  work  involved  an  immense  amount  of 
hardship  and  fatigue,  and  he  was  fond  of  describing  with  quaint 
picturesqueness  and  humour  his  experiences  in  roughing  it  in 
the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania  and  the  Carolinas.  In  1861  he 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts  the  re- 
sults of  his  work  up  to  that  time,  "  a  memoir  which  remains  to 
this  day  the  best  existing  description."  Again,  in  1880,  he 
brought  out  another  memoir  on  the  same  subject,  devoted 
chiefly  to  the  Catskills,  some  of  the  rough  work  for  which  was 
done  after  he  was  seventy  years  old.  Many  shorter  papers  on 
meteorological,  physical,  and  geographical  subjects  were  writ- 
ten at  intervals.  His  work  during  this  period  is  a  noble  ex- 
ample of  what  may  be  done  without  appropriations  or  endow- 
ments, for  in  those  days  Princeton  was  very  poor,  and  he  had 
to  do  as  best  he  could  without  assistance. 

As  a  friend  and  teacher  Guyot  will  ever  be  held  in  loving 


498  PIONEERS  OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

remembrance  till  the  last  of  his  hundreds  of  students  shall  have 
followed  him  to  the  grave.  His  lectures  were  wonderfully  fas- 
cinating, leading  his  hearers  step  by  step  to  heights  whence 
they  could  survey  the  whole  field  of  his  subject.  His  broad 
culture,  gained  by  the  combination  of  the  humanitarian  and 
scientific  studies,  had  given  him  an  extraordinary  power  of  gen- 
eralization, stimulating  his  students  by  showing  them  the  rela- 
tions of  any  subject  which  he  handled  to  the  whole  realm  of 
knowledge.  He  was  able  to  depict  these  sciences  in  their  true 
perspective  without  distortion  or  exaggeration,  a  power  which 
unhappily  is  not  very  common.  Those  who  had  the  rare  privi- 
lege of  pursuing  advanced  courses  of  study  under  his  supervi- 
sion will  long  remember  the  great  stimulus  to  earnest  work  which 
they  received  from  him,  and  the  clear,  philosophical  views  of 
Nature  which  he  expounded. 

For  many  years  Guyot  laboured  under  great  disadvantages 
from  the  lack  of  proper  appliances,  but  he  never  allowed  these 
drawbacks  to  lower  the  character  of  his  work.  When  Prince- 
ton's day  of  prosperity  came,  he  showed  that  he  knew  how  to 
apply  money  wisely,  as  before  he  had  been  able  to  accomplish 
a  great  deal  without  it.  The  system  of  scientific  expeditions 
to  the  West,  which  has  so  greatly  stimulated  the  study  of  natu- 
ral science  at  Princeton,  and  added  so  much  to  the  treasures 
of  her  museums,  was  organized  under  his  direction ;  and  the 
wonderful  growth  of  all  the  departments  of  natural  science  in 
the  college  must  be  in  very  large  measure  attributed  to  the  wis- 
dom and  foresight  of  Guyot. 

The  visible  monument  of  Guyot's  work  in  Princeton  will 
always  be  the  Museum  of  Geology  and  Archaeology.  He  ex- 
pended with  consummate  skill  the  sums  placed  at  his  disposal 
by  generous  friends,  and  organized  an  enthusiastic  corps  of 
workers,  so  that  a  superb  series  of  collections  has  been  gath- 
ered. Thus  in  every  department  of  activity  his  influence  has 
been  of  the  utmost  service  to  Princeton  in  particular,  and  to 
American  science  in  general. 

In  addition  to  the  work  of  his  professorship,  Guyot  gave 
courses  of  lectures  at  the  New  Jersey  State  Normal  School,  in 
Trenton,  at  the  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  at  Columbia 
College  and  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  in  New  York, 
and  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  He  wrote  a  treatise  on 
physical  geography  for  Johnson's  Atlas,  and  was  one  of  the  two 


ARNOLD    HENRY   GUYOT. 


499 


principal  editors  of  Johnson's  Cyclopaedia  (1874  to  1877),  the 
other  being  President  Barnard,  of  Columbia  College.  Prof. 
Guyot  was  much  impressed  by  the  correspondences  to  be  found 
between  the  account  of  creation  in  Genesis  and  the  progress  of 
evolution  contained  in  the  geological  record,  and  his  latest 
publication  was  devoted  to  this  subject,  being  entitled  Creation, 
or  the  Biblical  Cosmogony  in  the  Light  of  Modern  Science. 

Prof.  Guyot  received  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.  D.  from 
Union  College  ;  he  was  one  of  the  original  members  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences,  an  associate  member  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  Turin,  honorary  correspondent  of  the  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Society  of  London  and  of  the  Geographical  Society 
of  Paris,  a  member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Science,  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  and  other  learned  bodies. 

In  1867  Prof.  Guyot  married  a  daughter  of  the  late  Gov- 
ernor Haines,  of  New  Jersey,  a  lady  of  intelligence  and  refine- 
ment, who  made  for  him  the  happiest  of  homes.  He  left  no 
children. 

Prof.  Henry  C.  Cameron,  of  Princeton,  who  was  intimately 
associated  with  him  for  more  than  twenty-five  years,  has  de- 
scribed him  "  as  a  man  of  the  most  cultivated  taste  in  every 
respect — in  music,  in  painting,  in  short,  in  all  the  fine  arts.  I 
have  known  no  man  who  could  generalize  as  he  could.  His 
knowledge  of  history  and  philosophy,  his  acquaintance  with 
theology,  and  his  scientific  attainments  were  wonderful. 
Everything  was  assimilated  and  systematized  so  that  all  he  had 
learned  seemed  always  to  be  at  perfect  command.  A  perfect 
gentleman,  a  model  Christian,  a  man  whose  equal  I  have  never 


DAVID  DALE  OWEN. 

1807-1860. 

DAVID  DALE  OWEN  was  born  at  Braxfield  House,  near 
New  Lanark,  Scotland,  June  24,  1807.  He  was  the  fourth  son 
and  sixth  child  in  a  family  of  eight  children.  All  but  the 
first  born,  a  son,  lived  to  adult  age.  His  father,  Robert 
Owen,  the  celebrated  philanthropist,  was  a  native  of  North 
Wales. 

Robert  Owen,  after  working  in  the  drapery  business  in 
London  and  elsewhere,  entered  into  partnership  with  a  me- 
chanic, at  eighteen  years  of  age,  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton- 
spinning  machines.  A  year  later  he  took  a  position  as  super- 
intendent of  a  mill  employing  five  hundred  hands,  and  at 
twenty-two  years  of  age  he  became  a  partner  in  an  old-estab- 
lished spinning  concern  of  Manchester.  Having  become  at- 
tached to  Miss  Anne  Caroline,  the  eldest  daughter  of  David 
Dale,  proprietor  of  large  mills  at  New  Lanark,  near  Glasgow, 
he  arranged  with  his  partners  to  buy  the  works  of  the  father, 
and  soon  after  obtained  for  himself  the  hand  of  the  daughter. 
They  were  married  in  1797.  Undertaking  the  management 
of  the  works  ("  government  "  he  called  it),  he  steadily  im- 
proved the  condition  of  the  factory  hands,  which  had  been 
there  as  elsewhere  bad  to  a  degree  now  almost  incredible. 
Some  of  his  measures  were  opposed  by  his  partners,  and  led 
to  several  dissolutions  of  partnership  through  which  he  re- 
tained the  management,  but  he  was  forced  to  retire  in  1829, 
when  fifty-eight  years  of  age.  In  spite  of  what  he  spent  for 
the  workers,  Owen  always  made  the  business  pay  well.  For 
several  years,  beginning  with  1815,  he  worked  for  the  passage 
of  acts  of  Parliament  beneficial  to  factory  operatives.  Be- 
coming convinced  that  social  reform  could  be  best  secured 
through  communism,  he  bought  from  an  agent  of  the  Har- 
mony Society  in  1824  a  tract  of  thirty  thousand  acres,  and  the 

500 


DAVID   DALE    OWEN. 


DAVID   DALE   OWEN. 


501 


buildings  of  their  settlement  at  New  Harmony,  Ind.  The 
Harmony  Society  was  prosperous  but  wished  to  change  its 
location.  Coming  to  America  in  the  spring  of  1825,  he  or- 
ganized a  community  of  about  nine  hundred  persons  on 
a  provisional  plan,  and  then  returned  to  Scotland  to  look 
after  his  business,  leaving  his  two  oldest  sons  at  New 
Harmony. 

William  Maclure,  of  Philadelphia,  a  man  of  means  and  de- 
voted to  philanthropy  and  the  advancement  of  science,  took 
part  in  founding  the  community.  He  heard  of  Owen's  scheme 
on  returning  to  the  United  States  after  an  attempt  to  found 
an  agricultural  labour  school  in  Spain,  and  believed  that  it 
would  afford  favourable  conditions  for  carrying  out  his  cher- 
ished idea  of  an  educational  institute  founded  on  rational 
principles.  He  accordingly  bought  a  large  tract  of  land  in 
New  Harmony  and  vicinity,  and  removed  thither  his  library 
and  collection  of  minerals,  which  were  extensive,  and  his  valu- 
able scientific  apparatus.  He  induced  Gerard  Troost,  C.  A. 
Lesueur,  and  Thomas  Say,  also  Joseph  Neef,  the  pioneer  of 
Pestallozzian  education  in  America,  to  come  into  the  commu- 
nity with  him,  and  to  act  as  instructors  in  the  institution  pro- 
posed. When  the  society  was  divided  into  a  manufacturing 
and  educational,  and  an  agricultural  branch,  Maclure  became 
the  leading  spirit  in  the  educational  division. 

Owen  visited  New  Harmony  a  second  time  in  the  winter  of 
i825-*26.  His  third  visit  was  made  in  the  spring  of  1828,  and 
by  that  time  so  many  troubles  had  arisen  that  the  community 
was  disbanded.  The  failure  of  the  undertaking  was  due  to 
the  one  great  cause  that  makes  all  communistic  enterprises 
impracticable  in  the  present  age — the  imperfections  of  human 
nature.  In  the  same  year  Mr.  Owen  went  to  Mexico,  on  the 
invitation  of  the  Mexican  Government,  to  put  his  ideas  into 
practice  there,  but  effected  nothing  because  the  Government 
insisted  that  the  state  religion  of  the  proposed  community 
should  be  Roman  Catholic.  Some  experiments  were  afterward 
tried  by  him  in  Great  Britain,  and  he  continued  to  advocate  his 
views  with  voice  and  pen  until  his  death  in  1858.  His  followers 
received  the  name  of  "  Owenites."  He  published  a  consider- 
able number  of  writings,  including  an  autobiography. 

When  David  Dale  Owen  was  about  four  or  five  years  of 
age,  Nicholas  (afterward  Czar  of  all  the  Russias)  visited  Rob- 


502  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 

ert  Owen  to  make  inquiries  into  the  practical  workings  of  Mr. 
Owen's  proposed  new  social  system,  as  it  was  then  being  tried 
at  New  Lanark.  He  was  entertained  several  days  in  Braxfield 
House,  and  took  a  great  fancy  to  little  "  Dale,"  played  with 
him,  and  begged  to  be  allowed  to  adopt  the  child,  and  take  him 
to  Russia  for  life,  but  Mr.  Owen  refused.  Years  afterward, 
when  Nicholas  had  ascended  the  Romanoff  throne,  and  the 
little  white-haired  boy  had  emigrated  to  the  wilds  of  Posey 
County,  Indiana,  and  had  made  a  national  reputation  in  geol- 
ogy, he  sent  to  the  autocratic  Czar  a  set  of  his  voluminous 
reports  of  our  Northwest  territories.  The  Czar  in  his  own 
hand  acknowledged  the  receipt  of  the  volumes,  and  heartily 
congratulated  his  former  little  favourite  whom  he  had  fondled 
on  the  hills  of  Scotland. 

David  Dale  Owen's  early  education,  which  was  received 
from  a  private  tutor,  included  the  English  branches,  the  rudi- 
ments of  Latin,  and  a  course  in  architectural  drawing.  He 
was  also  trained  in  the  use  of  carpenter's  tools  in  the  me- 
chanical department  connected  with  his  father's  mills.  He 
was  for  a  time  a  pupil  in  the  grammar  school,  or  academy,  at 
New  Lanark.  His  father,  while  travelling  on  the  continent 
of  Europe,  had  visited  the  celebrated  educational  institution 
of  Emanuel  von  Fellenberg,  at  Hofwyl,  Switzerland,  and  was 
so  much  pleased  with  the  system  pursued  in  it — neither  moral, 
physical,  nor  intellectual  development  being  neglected — that 
he  sent  there  first  his  two  oldest  sons — Robert  Dale  and  Wil- 
liam— for  a  three  years'  course,  and  after  their  return  sent 
David  Dale  and  his  younger  brother  Richard  in  1824,  also  for 
three  years.  The  studies  of  the  more  advanced  classes  were 
partly  elective,  and  David  Dale  and  his  brother  chose  chem- 
istry, drawing,  and  modern  languages  in  addition  to  the  pre- 
scribed mathematical  and  literary  course.  Dale  Owen's  first 
interest  in  science  was  aroused  during  his  school-boy  excur^ 
sions  over  the  mountains  of  Switzerland,  while  a  pupil  at  Hof- 
wyl. Robert  Dale  Owen,  the  eldest  brother  of  the  subject  of 
this  sketch,  describes  in  his  autobiography,  Threading  my  Way, 
those  excursions  down  into  sunny  Italy,  over  into  the  Tyrol, 
France,  and  Germany,  which  Fellenberg's  pupils  most  heartily 
enjoyed. 

David  Dale  and  Richard  returned  to  Scotland  in  September, 
1826,  the  former  being  then  nineteen  years  old.  They  entered 


DAVID   DALE   OWEN.  503 

the  classes  in  physics  and  chemistry  conducted  by  Dr.  Andrew 
Ure,  author  of  the  Dictionary  of  Arts,  Manufactures,  and 
Mines,  at  Glasgow,  where  their  mother  then  resided.  Their 
father  was  absent  at  New  Harmony.  For  that  place  the  two 
younger  sons  set  out  in  November,  1827,  going  by  a  ship 
from  Liverpool  to  New  Orleans,  thence  up  the  Mississippi  by 
steamer,  reaching  the  settlement  on  the  Wabash  early  in  Janu- 
ary, 1828. 

During  the  next  three  years  they  kept  up  and  increased 
their  knowledge  of  chemistry  by  repeating  the  experiments 
of  Dr.  Ure's  course.  Desiring  to  extend  his  knowledge  of 
chemistry  and  geology,  Dale  Owen  in  1831  returned  to  Great 
Britain.  He  had  as  a  companion  Henry  D.  Rogers,  and  they 
both  lived  at  the  house  of  Owen's  father  in  London  while 
attending  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Turner  at  the  London  Uni- 
versity. 

After  about  a  year  abroad  Owen  came  back  to  the  United 
States.  Soon  after  his  return  he  was  stricken  with  Asiatic 
cholera,  which  was  epidemic  in  this  country  in  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1832,  but  was  fortunate  enough  to  survive  the 
attack.  Wishing  to  increase  his  knowledge  of  anatomy  and 
physiology  as  an  aid  in  the  study  of  paleontology,  he  entered 
the  Ohio  Medical  College,  in  Cincinnati,  and  was  graduated 
in  the  spring  of  1836.  He  devoted  the  summer  following  his 
graduation  to  gaining  practical  experience  in  field  geology. 
To  this  end  he  accompanied  at  his  own  expense  Dr.  Gerard 
Troost,  who  was  then  engaged  on  the  State  Survey  of  Ten- 
nessee. 

Dr.  Owen  married,  March  23,  1837,  Caroline  C.  Neef,  the 
third  daughter  of  Joseph  Neef. 

Having  been  appointed  State  Geologist  of  Indiana,  Dr. 
Owen,  immediately  after  his  marriage,  entered  upon  the  duties 
of  this  position.  He  made  a  preliminary  reconnaissance  in 
1837  and  1838,  his  report  upon  which  was  published  immedi- 
ately after  its  completion  and  reissued  in  1859.  Geological 
science  being  little  understood  in  the  West  when  this  document 
first  appeared,  a  brief  introductory  exposition  of  the  leading 
formations  was  given  in  it,  after  which  the  rich  deposits  of 
coal,  iron,  and  building  stones  within  the  limits  of  the  State 
were  described. 

The  Hon.  James  Whitcomb,  then  Governor  of  Indiana,  was 


504 


PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN   AMERICA. 


soon  afterward  made  Commissioner  of  the  General  Land  Office, 
and  Congress  having  ordered  a  survey  of  the  Dubuque  and 
Mineral  Point  districts  under  the  direction  of  his  bureau,  he 
selected  Dr.  Owen,  with  whose  ability  he  was  well  acquainted, 
to  conduct  this  examination.  These  districts  comprised  eleven 
thousand  square  miles  of  the  Northwest  Territory,  now  in- 
cluded in  the  States  of  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  and  the  object  of 
the  examination  was  to  enable  the  commissioner  to  reserve 
from  sale  those  sections  found  to  contain  mineral  wealth.  But 
a  short  time  was  allowed  for  the  work,  hence  it  became  neces- 
sary to  organize  a  large  force.  The  difficulties  involved  in 
such  a  rapid  prosecution  of  the  survey  are  indicated  in  the 
report  presented  by  Dr.  Owen  to  the  commissioner,  April  2, 
1840.  "  In  one  month  from  the  day  I  received  my  commission 
and  instructions,"  he  says,  "(to  wit,  on  September  xyth)  I  had 
reached  the  mouth  of  Rock  River  ;  engaged  one  hundred  and 
thirty-nine  subagents  and  assistants ;  instructed  them  in  such 
elementary  principles  of  geology  as  were  necessary  to  the  per- 
formance of  the  duties  required  of  them;  supplied  them  with 
simple  mineralogical  tests,  with  the  application  of  which  they 
were  made  acquainted ;  organized  twenty-four  working  corps, 
furnished  each  with  skeleton  maps  of  the  townships  assigned 
to  them  for  examination,  and  placed  the  whole  at  the  points 
where  their  labours  commenced,  all  along  the  line  of  the  west- 
ern half  of  the  territory  to  be  examined.  Thence  the  expedi- 
tion proceeded  northward  ;  each  corps  required,  on  the  average, 
to  overrun  and  examine  thirty  quarter  sections  daily,  and  to 
report  to  myself  on  fixed  days  at  regularly  appointed  stations : 
to  receive  which  reports  and  to  examine  the  country  in  person, 
I  crossed  the  district  under  examination,  in  an  oblique  direc- 
tion, eleven  times  in  the  course  of  the  survey." 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  1840  that  William  Maclure  died. 
As  administrator  of  his  estate,  his  brother  Alexander  engaged 
Dr.  Owen  to  assort  the  very  extensive  collection  of  minerals 
and  fossils  which  Mr.  Maclure  had  made  in  the  course  of  his 
geological  exploration  of  the  United  States  and  his  travels  in 
this  country,  Europe,  and  the  West  Indies.  Specific  suites  were 
to  be  distributed  to  certain  schools  and  colleges,  and  the  re- 
mainder was  to  be  retained  by  Dr.  Owen  as  the  nucleus  of  a 
museum.  These  directions  were  duly  carried  out.  With  re- 
gard to  the  portion  remaining  in  Dr.  Owen's  hands  The  Ameri- 


DAVID   DALE   OWEN.  505 

can  Geologist*  states:  "To  this  latter  Dr.  Owen  subse- 
quently added  largely,  by  purchase  from  Dr.  Krantz,  of  Ger- 
many, illustrative  fossils  of  every  period;  among  others  an 
ichthyosaurus,  from  the  Lias  of  Wiirtemberg,  larger  than  the 
one  in  the  British  Museum.  Another  interesting  and  valuable 
specimen  was  a  nearly  complete  skeleton  of  a  gigantic  mega- 
theroid  animal  (the  Megalonyx)  which  he  exhumed  near  Hen- 
derson, Ky.  The  entire  collection  some  years  after  Dr.  Owen's 
death  was  purchased  by  the  Indiana  University,  and  unfortu- 
nately nearly  all  consumed  by  fire,  when  the  new  university 
building,  including  the  museum,  laboratory,  and  library,  was 
destroyed." 

Dr.  Owen  was  again  called  into  the  service  of  the  Govern- 
ment in  1847,  being  appointed  United  States  Geologist  and 
directed  to  make  a  survey  of  the  Chippeway  land  district.  His 
Preliminary  Report,  made  in  the  following  year  to  the  Hon. 
R.  M.  Young,  then  Commissioner  of  the  Land  Office,  was  a 
document  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  octavo  pages,  and 
was  accompanied  by  three  hundred  and  twenty-three  litho- 
graphs from  his  own  sketches,  and  numerous  maps,  diagrams, 
etc. 

The  scope  of  his  examination  was  then  enlarged  so  as  to 
embrace  a  fuller  survey  of  portions  of  the  Northwest  Terri- 
tory, lying  mainly  within  the  present  States  of  Wisconsin, 
Iowa,  and  Minnesota.  This  task  required  five  years  of  field 
work  and  a  final  year  of  laboratory  and  office  work,  ending 
with  the  year  1852.  A  large  appropriation  was  made  by  Con- 
gress for  illustrating  and  printing  Owen's  report,  all  the  details 
of  publication  being  committed  to  him.  The  result  was  a  finely 
illustrated  quarto  volume  of  six  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
pages,  many  of  the  illustrations  being  from  the  original  draw- 
ings of  Dr.  Owen,  who  had  great  facility  in  sketching.  In  this 
volume  he  applied  for  the  first  time  the  medal-ruling  style  of 
engraving  to  cuts  of  fossils. 

In  an  article  on  Geological  Surveys  in  Missouri  Mr.  Arthur 
Winslow  says  of  Owen's  reports  up  to  this  time:  "These 
reports  supplied  the  guiding  lines  along  which  later  strati- 


*  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  David  Dale  Owen,  M.  D.,  August,  1889,  to  which 
source  acknowledgment  is  due  for  a  large  portion  of  the  material  entering  into 
the  present  account. 
33 


506  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE    IN   AMERICA. 

graphic  work  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  was  done.  Without  at- 
tempting here  to  present  the  history  of  this  work,  its  bearing 
upon  future  operations  in  Missouri  calls  for  brief  mention.  In 
the  Indiana  reports  Owen  makes  a  separation  of  the  rocks,  in 
harmony  with  the  English  classification,  into — i.  Bituminous 
coal  formations.  2.  Mountain  limestone.  3.  Grauwacke.  4. 
Crystalline  and  inferior  stratified  rocks.  In  the  succeeding 
reports,  as  the  results  of  wider  observation  and  more  thorough 
study,  the  classification  was  changed  and  differentiated  until, 
in  the  final  report,  we  find  a  classification  which,  not  only  in 
its  general  features,  but  in  many  of  its  details,  is  still  adhered 
to  in  Missouri." 

From  1854  to  1859  Dr.  Owen  was  occupied  wifh  the  geolog- 
ical survey  of  Kentucky,  having  been  appointed  State  Geolo- 
gist by  Governor  Powell.  The  results  of  his  explorations  were 
published  as  the  work  progressed,  and  compose  four  large  oc- 
tavo volumes.  Dr.  Robert  Peter,  of  Lexington,  Ky.,  performed 
the  chemical  work  of  the  survey  and  made  a  special  report 
upon  it.  Toward  the  close  of  his  labours  in  Kentucky,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1857,  Dr.  Owen  was  commissioned  to  conduct  a  geological 
survey  of  the  State  of  Arkansas.  His  principal  assistant  in  the 
Kentucky  survey,  Mr.  E.  T.  Cox,  filled  the  same  position  in 
the  new  work.  The  chemical  assistant  on  the  latter  survey 
was  Dr.  Elderhorst,  author  of  a  work  on  the  blowpipe. 

Various  incidents  in  his  surveys  prove  Dr.  Owen  to  have 
been  a  man  of  indomitable  perseverance.  Once,  while  on  the 
Red  River  of  the  North  with  a  Canadian  voyageur,  the  fowling- 
piece  used  by  the  latter  for  procuring  game  was  discharged  in 
such  a  way  as  to  lodge  a  number  of  shot  in  Dr.  Owen's  shoul- 
der. He  did  not  permit  the  accident  to  delay  him  an  hour. 
Again,  the  summer  occupied  with  the  field  work  of  the  Arkansas 
survey,  a  considerable  part  of  which  was  necessarily  spent  in 
the  rich  and  malarious  bottom  lands,  proved  very  detrimental 
to  his  health,  bringing  him  homejn  the  autumn  with  a  hue  de- 
noting serious  derangement  of  the  liver.  Yet  he  not  only  per- 
severed in  his  explorations,  but  occupied  himself  in  winter  with 
laboratory  work,  usually  until  midnight.  He  did  not  desist 
even  when  suffering  acutely  from  his  last  illness,  but  dictated 
the  closing  portions  of  his  report  until  within  forty-eight  hours 
of  his  death.  Between  Dr.  Owen  and  Governor  Conway,  who 
had  given  him  the  Arkansas  appointment,  there  always  ex- 


DAVID   DALE   OWEN.  507 

isted  the  most  cordial  good  feeling,  and  the  latter  provided 
every  facility  for  the  prosecution  of  the  survey.  Toward  the 
end  of  1860  postal  communication  between  the  North  and 
South  was  considerably  interrupted,  for  the  breach  which  cul- 
minated in  civil  war  was  already  opening.  Yet  the  Governor, 
at  considerable  pains,  succeeded  in  sending  safely  to  New 
Harmony  several  thousand  dollars  due  from  the  appropria- 
tion, and  required  for  the  publication  of  the  second  volume 
of  the  report.  Dr.  Owen  had  died,  and  the  issuing  of  this 
volume,  for  which  he  had  left  full  instructions,  fell  to  his  broth- 
er and  administrator,  Prof.  Richard  Owen.  The  latter  also 
executed  a  second  survey  of  Indiana,  for  which  his  brother 
had  been  appointed  in  1859,  with  the  understanding  that 
Richard  should  do  as  much  of  the  work  as  might  be  neces- 
sary. 

The  labours  above  outlined  resulted  in  undermining  the 
originally  good  constitution  with  which  Dale  Owen  had  been 
endowed.  Malarial  fever,  complicated  with  rheumatic  attacks 
which  threatened  the  heart,  terminated  his  career  of  usefulness 
November  13,  1860.  He  left  a  widow,  two  sons,  and  two 
daughters.  Mrs.  Owen  survived  her  husband  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  His  sons,  Colonel  Alfred  Dale  and  William  H. 
Owen,  adopted  mercantile  pursuits.  The  latter  has  also  taken 
much  interest  in  astronomy,  being  considered  one  of  the  best 
authorities  in  his  State  on  his  favourite  science.  All  the  chil- 
dren and  grandchildren  of  Dr.  Owen  show  evidence  of  inherit- 
ing a  goodly  share  of  the  Owen  intellect  and  character. 

Like  Robert  Owen,  David  Dale  was  kind,  unassuming,  in- 
dustrious, and  easily  imposed  upon,  because  he  thought  all  as 
honest  as  himself.  He  often  allowed  wandering  geologists  to 
visit  his  cabinets,  and  many  valuable  specimens  were  lost  in  this 
way.  His  kindness  and  liberality  were  well  known,  and  his 
scientific  work  was  always  conscientiously  performed.  He  is 
not  known  to  have  given  much  attention  to  religious  matters, 
and  one  relative  has  stated  that  he  inclined  to  materialism. 
His  fondness  for  chemistry  and  mineralogy  led  him  to  build  at 
a  cost  of  ten  thousand  dollars  a  laboratory  fully  equipped, 
which  served  as  a  material  evidence  of  his  good  taste  in  archi- 
tecture. His  architectural  taste  was  further  evinced  in  the 
artistic  design  which  he  submitted  for  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution building.  He  also  tested  many  varieties  of  building 


5o8  PIONEERS   OF   SCIENCE   IN  AMERICA. 

stone  before  the  selection  of  material  for  that  structure  was 
determined. 

His  artistic  skill  enabled  him,  besides  richly  illustrating  his 
reports,  as  above  noted,  to  leave  good  portraits  in  oil  of  mem- 
bers of  his  family.  He  transmitted  to  London  views  of  the 
fossil  Sigillaria  found  erect  in  situ  twelve  miles  from  New  Har- 
mony, with  a  description,  which  were  presented  to  the  British 
Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  by  Sir  Roderick 
Murchison.  He  subsequently  conducted  Sir  Charles  Lyell  to 
the  locality  while  the  latter  was  his  guest  at  New  Harmony  in 
his  second  visit  to  the  United  States. 

In  later  years  Dr.  Owen  became  completely  absorbed  in  his 
scientific  labours,  so  much  so  that  he  frequently  failed  to  eat  or 
sleep.  Many  stories  are  told  of  his  complete  "  marriage  to  his 
laboratory,"  as  he  was  wont  to  express  it.  A  relative  was 
visiting  him  once,  and  at  the  close  of  dinner  he  arose  from  the 
table  and  asked  to  be  excused,  by  saying  that  he  had  told  Car- 
rie before  marriage  that  he  had  married  his  laboratory  first. 
Yet  a  better  husband  or  a  kinder  father  was  never  known.  Of 
the  many  excellent  traits  noticeable  in  common  among  all  the 
male  descendants  of  Robert  Owen,  no  other  is  so  apparent 
as  their  devotion  to  wife  and  children. 

An  added  value  was  given  to  Dr.  Owen's  scientific  labours 
by  the  interest  they  aroused  among  the  untutored  settlers  of 
the  West  in  geology  and  chemistry.  Had  it  not  been  for  him, 
much  that  William  Maclure  attempted  for  early  science  in  the 
West  would  have  been  lost.  He  was  the  first  State  Geologist 
of  Indiana,  and  he  also  trained  the  second  and  third  incum- 
bents of  that  office,  namely,  Dr.  Richard  Owen  and  Prof.  E. 
T.  Cox.  Indiana  owes  a  great  debt  to  Dr.  Owen  for  his  early 
work  in  science ;  Kentucky  and  Arkansas  owe  fully  as  much. 
Dr.  Owen  also  largely  prepared  A.  H.  Worthen  for  his  work 
later  as  State  Geologist  of  Illinois.  In  fact,  the  whole  Missis- 
sippi Valley  is  indebted  to  this  mild-mannered  and  hard-work- 
ing scientist  for  blazing  the  way  for  the  hosts  who  have  fol- 
lowed. 


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numerous  Illustrations  and  an  Appendix  on  the  Principal  Gal- 
leries of  Europe.  New  edition,  fully  revised,  and  in  part  rewrit- 
ten. I2mo.  Cloth,  $3.00;  half  calf,  $5.00. 

"  The  volume  is  one  of  great  practical  utility,  and  may  be  used  to  advantage  as  an 
artistic  guide-book  by  persons  visiting  the  collections  of  Italy,  France,  and  Germany 
for  the  first  time."— New  York  Tribune. 


New  York:  D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


H 


D.  APPLETON  &  CO.'S  PUBLICATIONS. 

I STORY  OF  THE  PEOPLE  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,  from  the 
Revolution  to  the  Civil  War.  By  JOHN 
BACH  McMASTER.  To  be  completed  in 
six  volumes.  Vols.  I,  II,  III,  and  IV  now 
ready.  8vo,  cloth,  gilt  top,  $2.50  each. 

"  .  .  .  Prof.  McMaster  has  told  us  what  no  other  histo- 
rians have  told.  .  .  .  The  skill,  the  animation,  the  bright- 
ness, the  force,  and  the  charm  with  which  he  arrays  the 
facts  before  us  are  such  that  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  more 
interesting  reading  for  an  American  citizen  who  cares  to 
know  the  nature  of  those  causes  which  have  made  not  only 
him  but  his  environment  and  the  opportunities  life  has 
given  him  what  they  are." — New  York  Times. 

JOHN  BACH  MCMASTER  "  Those  who  can  read  between  the  lines  may  discover  in 

these  pages  constant  evidences  of  care  and  skill  and  faithful 

labor,  of  which  the  old-time  superficial  essayists,  compiling  library  notes  on  dates  and 
striking  events,  had  no  conception ;  but  to  the  general  reader  the  fluent  narrative 
gives  no  hint  of  the  conscientious  labors,  far-reaching,  world-wide,  vast  and  yet  micro- 
scopically minute,  that  give  the  strength  and  value  which  are  felt  rather  than  seen. 
This  is  due  to  the  art  of  presentation.  The  author's  position  as  a  scientific  workman 
we  may  accept  on  the  abundant  testimony  of  the  experts  who  know  the  solid  worth 
of  his  work  ;  his  skill  as  a  literary  artist  we  can  all  appreciate,  the  charm  of  his  style 
being  self-evident." — Philadelphia  Telegraph. 

"The  third  volume  contains  the  brilliantly  written  and  fascinating  story  of  the 
progress  and  doings  of  the  people  of  this  country  from  the  era  of  the  Louisiana  pur- 
chase to  the  opening  scenes  of  the  second  war  with  Great  Britain — say  a  period  of  ten 
years.  In  every  page  of  the  book  the  reader  finds  that  fascinating  flow  of  narrative, 
that  clear  and  lucid  style,  and  that  penetrating  power  of  thought  and  judgment  which 
distinguished  the  previous  volumes." — Columbus  State  Journal. 

"  Prof.  McMaster  has  more  than  fulfilled  the  promises  made  in  his  first  volumes, 
and  his  work  is  constantly  growing  better  and  more  valuable  as  he  brings  it  nearer  to 
our  own  time.  His  style  is  clear,  simple,  and  idiomatic,  and  there  is  just  enough  of 
the  critical  spirit  in  the  narrative  to  guide  the  reader." — Boston  Herald. 

"  Take  it  all  in  all,  the  History  promises  to  be  the  ideal  American  history.  Not  so 
much  given  to  dates  and  battles  and  great  events  as  in  the  fact  that  it  is  like  a  great 
panorama  of  the  people,  revealing  their  inner  life  and  action.  It  contains,  with  all  its 
sober  facts,  the  spice  of  personalities  and  incidents,  which  relieves  every  page  from 
dullness. " — Chicago  Inter- Ocean. 

"In  his  first  two  volumes  Prof.  McMaster  achieved  a  distinct  success.  In  this 
(third)  volume  the  reputation  thus  gained  is  fully  sustained.  The  same  brilliancy  of 
style  which  characterizes  his  previous  volumes  is  seen  here,  and  the  same  excellent 
arrangement  and  thorough  comprehension  of  causes  and  results  is  apparent." — Boston 
Advertiser. 

"  History  written  in  this  picturesque  style  will  tempt  the  most  heedless  to  read. 
Prof.  McMaster  is  more  than  a  stylist ;  he  is  a  student,  and  his  History  abounds  in 
evidences  of  research  in  quarters  not  before  discovered  by  the  historian." — Chicago 
Tribune. 

"  A  History  sui  generis  which  has  made  and  will  keep  its  own  place  in  our  liter- 
ature."— New  York  Evening  Post. 

"  His  style  is  vigorous  and  his  treatment  candid  and  impartial." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 


New  York:   D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  72  Fifth  Avenue. 


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